Royal National Institute of Blind People donates braille Lego bricks for visually impaired children

The Lego toolkits have been donated to schools in Portsmouth and Hampshire who work with visually impaired pupils as well as for children being home-schooled.

The kits are made up of 300 Lego bricks that are specially moulded so that studs on the bricks reflect individual letters and numbers in the braille alphabet.

It’s hoped the bricks will help the children to develop tactile skills as well as learning the braille system.

Each brick features printed letters, numbers and symbols so that they can also be used by sighted classmates.

RNIB director of services, David Clarke said: ‘We are excited to bring the Lego braille brick toolkits to UK classrooms to help children learn how to read and write braille in a fun and engaging way.

‘Braille is an important tool and these inclusive toolkits will make a real difference to children with vision impairment, allowing them to play and interact with their sighted classmates.’

The RNIB has also provided teachers with training in how to use the specially designed bricks.

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The bricks are not on general sale and can only be ordered by heads of service from local sensory services.

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