Teaching Moon

The main difference between adults and children learning Moon is that adults generally approach Moon as established readers. Children, who on the whole will have learning and possibly physical disabilities, will use Moon to achieve varying degrees of literacy. A DVD and supporting teaching guide are available from VICTAR at the University of Birmingham. Click here for an order form.

Adults

Adults will usually need to be introduced to Moon by rehabilitation workers and voluntary societies, which is why it is so important that everyone is aware of Moon as a genuine alternative to braille.

The course supplied by RNIB is for adults who want to touch read Moon (see Resources) and is designed so that the learner can study Moon on their own. However, it may be easier and more enjoyable to learn with the help of a teacher.

Rehabilitation Officers who specialise in working with clients with visual impairments at the local Social Services Department (Sensory Impairment team) may be able to teach Moon, or it may be worth contacting the local voluntary society for the blind. Some offer one-to-one tuition, or run regular classes where learners help each other. Even if no teacher is available, they may be able to put a would-be learner in touch with local Moon readers who are happy to offer encouragement and advice.

Children

The MoonCats Teachers’ Guide is available in print from RNIB. This comes highly recommended by teachers.

At Linden Lodge School one of our teachers has put together some mnemonics to help the pupils learn the alphabet and numbers. Click on the following links for details: Moon Letter Mnemonics, Mnemonics for Moon Numbers.

Here are some comments from teachers who are teaching Moon to children:

Moon is considered very accessible for students with a variety of disabilities, both learning and physical, especially when fine motor skills are not present. Using Moon has been found to encourage language development. It has been used in conjunction with Language Master machines (available from Drake International), where you can put the Moon letter or word onto the card with the whole sentence being recorded.

To access Moon it is important to develop and consolidate good tactile reading skills such as posture and using both hands, etc. These are the same skills as are needed for braille. In addition, all the tracking and matching exercises are just as valuable for Moon readers as for braille readers. The Feeling Ready to Read pack (from RNIB) has been used by a number of teachers for their Moon readers.

For students using objects of reference, it was found to be valuable to introduce Moon very early on. By putting the initial letter of the object in Moon on the object right from the start, the child is exposed to Moon which allows incidental learning to take place.

Using Moon enables students to name their possessions and be exposed to general labelling of resources in the classroom.

See also Resources