Each Braille cell is comprised of six raised dots. These dots are numbered and each dot is well-known under its number. The dots 1 and 4 form the top pair, 2 and 5 the middle pair and 3 and 6 the bottom pair. In other words, The left side of the basic braille cell consists of the dots 1, 2 and 3, the right one of the dots 4, 5 and 6.
63 simple characters can be formed by these six dots. These 63 characters are divided in 7 groups. I explain only three of them.
The characters of the first group are formed by the dots 1, 2, 4 and 5. They represent the first 10 letters of the alphabet: “a – j”.
The second group is formed by adding the dot 3 to the characters of the first group. They represent the second 10 letters of the alphabet: “k – t”.
The third group is formed by adding the dots 3 and 6 to the 5 first characters of the first group. They represent the last letters of the alphabet with the exception of “w”: “u, v, x, y and z”.
Consider blocks to separate these and write a message or a simple word, birthday in Braille. We had a ton of buttons donated once and we didn’t know what to do with them. We ended up making super thick “burrito” binkies and we added the alphabet in Braille or the child’s name. Each letter was made with different buttons – sort of like a different font for each letter. They were a huge hit and we made them fluffy enough that if you flipped them over, you still had a super soft binky.
