Non-fiction audio for a child with visual perception problems (case study)
A parent was looking for books for her 8 year old daughter. The child had been diagnosed with perceptual problems that meant that although her eyes functioned normally, her brain was unable to process visual stimulus.She needed to find educational books in audio form but was struggling to source them from commercial providers. Here are some suggestions from the RNIB specialist children’s librarian:
- A useful website for you to visit is JISC TechDis, an educational advisory service which may be able to help with the technology. Although it is difficult to find non-fiction on audio for children, using a computer to adapt text based material on the Internet is a possible solution.
- I am not sure how accessible they are but Usborne Internet-linked books might be useful
- There are a few audio CDs that do address non-fiction, for example the Horrible Histories series. I also found this on Amazon, Counting and Understanding Number although it looks like a CD-Rom rather than audio.
- Have you checked Audible? You can play the books from the computer. Not sure what the children’s titles are like though, but I believe they too have Horrible Histories etc.
- Is your daughter already a subscriber of RNIB Talking Books Service? We have ‘The worst children’s jobs in history’ by Tony Robinson for loan on daisy CD for example, but unfortunately we wouldn’t have much in the way of non-fiction.
The use of screen-reading software is probably your best option and should open up a whole new world for your daughter.
- Date: October 2009