BATON ROUGE, La. (The Livingston Parish News) — Two Livingston Parish students put their reading skills to the test, and the results were better than the majority of their peers.
Aiden McMasters and Brock Kaiser, both students in the Livingston Parish Public Schools system, both earned top-two finishes in the Louisiana Regional Braille Challenge.
The Braille Challenge is the only academic competition of its kind in North America for students who are blind or visually impaired, according to Braille Institute, a non-profit organization that provides services to children with blindness and vision loss.
Braille Institute developed the Braille Challenge to motivate students to practice and hone their braille literacy skills, and it is open to any blind or visually impaired student in grades 1-12 who can read and write braille.
Held locally at the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired in Baton Rouge, the annual competition tested speed, accuracy, and reading comprehension as well as the students’ ability to comprehend graphs and complete mathematical problems.
McMasters, a fourth-grader at Levi Milton Elementary, and Kaiser, a sixth-grader at The Holden School, proved to be up to the challenge.
Under the direction of teacher Rachel Bishop, McMasters grabbed a first-place finish in his division while Kaiser netted a second-place finish in his.
The Livingston Parish Public Schools system posted a photo of the two winners on its Facebook page Wednesday, ending the post by saying, “Excellent Job!”
The 2020 Braille Challenge National Finals will be held June 26-27 at the University of Southern California.
