Pre-Braille Skills: Home Activities and the Swing Cell

Pre-braille skills are the touch, hand, concept and book skills a child builds before reading braille, and many of them grow out of play and daily routines at home. The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired's guide to early tactile learning puts it simply: "Simply involve the child in everyday activities" (Paths to Literacy).

This guide is for parents of a blind or low-vision child from birth to about age five. It covers each skill with home activities, the swing cell and other cell models, and early intervention under Part C of IDEA. Sources were checked on October 30, 2026. It explains what they say; it isn't medical advice, and your child's teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) and early intervention team know your child. For the law and when to start, see teaching braille to a blind child; for classroom games, see braille games and activities.

Key points

• There is no single test. Reading is "the culmination of many skills that must come together first" (Paths to Literacy).
• Touch learning takes time, and that is normal. Tactual learning "simply takes more time" than visual learning (TSBVI).
• The swing cell links the cell to the braillewriter. Closed, its pegs are the dots; open, they are the keys (Paths to Literacy).
• Part C covers birth through age 2. The regulation lists vision services and "teachers of children with visual impairments" (34 CFR 303.13).

Pre-braille skills at a glance

Sources: Getting Ready for Braille Instruction, Motor Activities Checklist, Early Tactile Learning, Pre-Braille Assessment.

What "pre-braille" means

Braille is read with fingers on the move. The Library of Congress says "Both hands are usually involved in the reading process" (NLS). So the groundwork is as much about hands as about ideas.

Paths to Literacy groups it into concepts (such as body and space awareness and time awareness), motor skills, and touch and listening skills (Getting Ready for Braille Instruction). A Pre-Braille Assessment form hosted there covers the same areas, plus writing and book skills (Pre-Braille Assessment). It is a way to record progress, not a pass-or-fail test.

Low vision doesn't remove the need. The TSBVI authors write that "low vision students might also be missing crucial information" (TSBVI). Whether a child will read braille, print or both is decided later by the education team.

Tactile discrimination: telling things apart by touch

Tactile discrimination means noticing differences in texture, size and shape through touch. It takes patience: tactual learning works by "exploration of one aspect of an object at a time," and the child puts the parts together into a whole (TSBVI).

Gwyn McCormack's checklist goes from big to small: sort hand-size objects by shape, size, texture and cool or warm, then smaller objects, then flat ones explored with the fingertips (Motor Activities Checklist). The assessment form adds that children work with real objects first, and only later with representations of them, such as raised shapes and lines (Pre-Braille Assessment).

Home activities from the sources:

• Rough and smooth. Gather a scrubbing pad and sandpaper for rough, felt and satin ribbon for smooth. Show all the rough items, then all the smooth ones, with plenty of descriptive words, and only then mix them up. Jodi Floyd says same or different "should be the last concept that you teach" (Paths to Literacy).
• Fabric cards. "Use fabrics to make tactile cards for matching and sequencing," from clothing such as denim, corduroy or terry cloth, then play same and different (Kim Avila).
• Sensory bins. Hide a small toy in a bin of cotton pom-poms and let the child search, scoop and pour. Texture boxes and glue paths are in braille games and activities, and raised pictures come later; see tactile graphics.

A safety note: small objects need supervision. The Braille Babies author asks families to "follow child safety and choking hazard guidelines" and to check with the child's providers about what suits each child (Paths to Literacy).

Hands and fingers: movement, strength and isolation

Hands start with the whole body. "Gross motor skills are the foundation for fine motor development," the TSBVI authors write, so babies need to kick, roll and crawl, and reasons to reach (TSBVI). McCormack's checklist then lists activities by movement (Motor Activities Checklist):

• Grasp and release: squeezing toys, taking objects out of containers, stringing beads, stacking cups.
• Wrist movement: turning knobs and lids, wind-up toys, mixing food in a bowl, pouring.
• Two hands together: holding a container with one hand while the other places an object in it, tearing paper, pulling tape off a roll.
• Strength: crumpling paper, clothespins on the edge of a can, working playdough, popping bubble wrap.
• Isolation (one finger at a time): fingerprints in playdough, pushing buttons on toys, playing musical instruments.
• Light touch: moving the fingers across the page over cotton balls placed beneath them.

Tracking: following a line

Tracking is following a line with the fingers without losing it. The checklist suggests this order: textured lines of yarn, string, ribbon or straws, then rows of counters, beads, buttons or pasta, then braille cells, left to right and then top to bottom (Motor Activities Checklist).

A home version from Kim Avila: stick tape or ribbon on construction paper to make a path, and let the child follow it left to right to a cracker at the end (Paths to Literacy).

Concepts: top, bottom, left and right

The Paths to Literacy concept list includes up and down, over and under, top and bottom, front and back, left and right, and near and far (Getting Ready for Braille Instruction).

Routines are the easiest classroom. The TSBVI guide's example is getting dressed: let the child hold the shirt and explore the neck, sleeves, buttons, front and back, "describing and labeling the parts you are touching together" (TSBVI). The same guide warns about "empty language," words used without real understanding. It also says "It takes many experiences of a similar type to develop one concept." Repeat the routine; don't hunt for a new one.

Books, listening and vocabulary

Listening. The Paths to Literacy list includes naming which object is making a sound, loud and soft, high and low, and where a sound comes from (Getting Ready for Braille Instruction).

Books. The same list suggests books with real objects, tactile pictures or a variety of textures, and simple story boxes. On the assessment form, book skills start small: enjoying a story, finding the front and back of a book, and turning pages one at a time. One mother, writing in Future Reflections, began with a touch-and-feel board book when her daughter was six months old and committed to reading together every night (Paths to Literacy). More sources are in braille books and free braille resources.

Braille that means something. Paths to Literacy lists the idea that braille dots can identify, label, name and tell a story, and suggests braille labels on favorite objects. In the mother's account, the family's TVI told her the child should begin "to associate the bumps with meaning." They showed the label, ran the child's fingers over the word and said it. If you make labels, ask the TVI to check them; see braille labels.

The swing cell and other cell models

The braille cell is six dots, "numbered downward 1-2-3 on the left and 4-5-6 on the right" (NLS). The braille alphabet page shows it. Cell models turn that pattern into something a young child can hold.

Cells around the house

Kim Avila's program starts from the idea that "Braille cells are everywhere": a muffin pan, an egg carton, a dresser with knobs in two columns and three rows. Her examples (Paths to Literacy):

• Muffin pan snack. Put the cup in dot 4, pretzels in dot 2 and applesauce in dot 6, and let the child search the cell by touch.
• Egg cartons. Fill a half-dozen carton with plastic eggs of different textures, with one smooth egg among textured ones.
• Velcro box. Stick two columns and three rows of Velcro on a small storage box, and use thin milk lids as dots.
• Muffin pan and mallet. In a silicone muffin pan, call out a letter such as b and have the child tap dots 1 and 2 with a toy hammer.
• Block cells. Single and triple interlocking toy blocks can form a six-dot cell.

A French teacher of the visually impaired and an occupational therapist describe a progression by age: body braille, a large cell, a medium cell, a small cell, regular braille, and a peg cell (Paths to Literacy). A giant floor cell is in braille games and activities, and brick cells are in LEGO Braille Bricks.

The swing cell

A swing cell is a cell model that opens like a gate. Tracy Fitch describes it: closed, removable pegs stand for the dots of a braille cell; open, the pegs stand for the keys of a braillewriter (Paths to Literacy). It shows how the cell you read relates to the keys you press, so it is usually a later step, for children beginning braille.

The finger map matches the braillewriter: left index finger dot 1, left middle dot 2, left ring dot 3, right index dot 4, right middle dot 5 and right ring dot 6 (LEGO Braille Bricks).

To make one, cut an egg carton lengthwise into two rows and leave one end connected. Extended, it shows the writing position, with dots numbered left to right 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6 (LEGO Braille Bricks).

Two teaching ideas from the sources. Fitch drills the layout: the student counts the holes with an index finger, then moves one peg on request, "put the peg in dot 1," then another dot (Paths to Literacy). Anna Gayle's method moves from a table edge to an open swing cell to the braillewriter keys, with the same fingers on the same dots (Paths to Literacy).

Early intervention: who helps from birth to age 3

Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a federal grant program that helps states run early intervention services for infants and toddlers, birth through age 2, and their families (ECTA Center). The regulation defines an infant or toddler with a disability as someone "under three years of age" who needs early intervention services (34 CFR 303.21). Who qualifies depends partly on the state: ECTA notes that states have "a great deal of latitude in defining developmental delay." This guide can't say whether your child qualifies; ask the state program. The ECTA Center keeps a list of Part C state systems (data current as of October 30, 2026), with a referral phone and website for many states.

The services in the regulation include vision services, which cover evaluation of visual functioning, referral to other professionals and "orientation and mobility training for all environments," and special instruction, which gives families information, skills and support (34 CFR 303.13). They are meant to happen in natural environments, "including the home and community" (ECTA Center). APH ConnectCenter says early intervention is primarily home-based and delivered by traveling professionals (APH ConnectCenter).

The plan is the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), an agreement between the family and providers on services and supports, where and how often they happen (ECTA Center). It must be reviewed every six months, or sooner if conditions warrant or the family asks (34 CFR 303.342).

On cost, the regulation says early intervention services are provided at no cost, except where federal or state law provides for a system of payments by families, including sliding fees (34 CFR 303.13). What applies to your family depends on your state, so ask the program directly.

At age 3, states must have procedures for a smooth move to preschool or other services (34 CFR 303.209). After that, Part B of IDEA covers education, with an IEP (APH ConnectCenter). The expanded core curriculum describes what a TVI teaches next, alongside braille.

Where Braillito fits

A child this young learns through hands, voices and books, not an app. The adults around the child often want to read the labels and books the TVI introduces, and that part is learning the code. Braillito, our app, teaches braille. It teaches the braille cells in lessons with exercises you play, with lives, levels and a daily streak: 59 lessons in 8 worlds in English. It also has a translator, a dictionary and a cell builder. The English lessons are uncontracted braille (grade 1); they don't teach contracted braille or transcription, and Braillito isn't a braille transcriber.

If you make braille labels for your child's things, ask the TVI to check them. The translator on braillito.com shows how a word or short phrase looks in UEB, but it only applies the rules a program can apply, so it doesn't replace a transcriber. Without paying, the braille translator works in any browser.

Braillito is a subscription with no free version; depending on the plan, it starts with a free trial or a discounted first period, if it's your first subscription (is Braillito free?). Get Braillito.

Frequently asked questions

When should pre-braille skills start?

Early. The TSBVI guide says building tactile skills "needs to start in infancy," with movement, interaction and access to interesting people and objects (TSBVI).

What is a swing cell?

A cell model that opens. Closed, its pegs show the dots of a braille cell; open, they show the braillewriter keys (Paths to Literacy). It is used with children who are beginning braille.

Do I need to know braille before my child does?

Not for most of this guide: the activities use no braille dots. For labels and books, ask the TVI, and see learning braille as a sighted person.

Is early intervention free?

The regulation says services are provided at no cost, except where federal or state law provides for a system of payments by families, such as sliding fees (34 CFR 303.13). Ask your state program what applies to you.