dyslexic scout

[ElyriaLeader]

What a perfect job that all these public figures that have run askance of the law could do as a public service! Imagine Paris Hilton reading the Citizenship MB handbook to you on an audio recording, LOL I would hope for Robin Williams to get nabbed for something...imagine him recording the shotgun MB handbook!

[evmori]

Why does he have to read the MB pamphlet? I'm a counselor for 10 MB's & I have never required any Scout I have been counseling to read the MB pamphlet! I have always told them it is a great resource if they need one.

 

You can't just change the requirements because of a disability. All requirement changes must be approved.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[GNX Guy]

Since we are talking about Merit Badges here and not rank requirements, I have to point out that what evmori claims in the statement below is NOT correct. NO REQUIREMENT CHANGES WITHIN A MERIT BADGE CAN EVER BE APPROVED BY ANYONE. If a scout cannot complete a required merit badge, a request for an alternative merit badge can be submitted only after all Eagle required merit badges that can be completed in their entirety are completed. Then the scout or his parents can apply for alternative merit badges using form # 58-730 and submit to the District advancement committee for approval, upon that approval, it gets submitted to the Council Advancement committee for approval(As detailed on pages 39-43 of the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures Manual Publication #33088 and on page 29 of the "Scouting for Youth with Disabilities Manual" publication #34059

 

 

 

evmori wrote:

 

You can't just change the requirements because of a disability. All requirement changes must be approved.

 

 

[FireKat]

Nowhere I have ever seen has there been a requirement to read the MB book. I understand those bto be a supplement to the MBC's information. As long as a scout can complete the requirements he has earned the badge. A good MBC should be able to get a scout to be able to do all the requirements without the MB book. When I do MBs I check what the latest requirements are and go from there. If a councilor KNOWS their subject, the book is not needed to teach it, just the list of requirements.

[Liz]

That's true. I can't think of any reason why I would require a boy to read a MB book; however I think several of the MB books can be very helpful to have the boy read, if possible.

 

Unfortunately, the boy in question who is having trouble reading his MB books may not have the option of going to a counselor who is willing to verbally go over all the material needed to get the MB done. Sending the boy off to read the manual, do the work, and report back to me is not MY MBC style. I prefer (when possible) to get groups of boys together in small groups, direct them toward how to accomplish the requirement, and accompany them on "field trips" and that sort of thing. I'm doing this for the MB I'm counseling now, and I go along as a helper for other MBCs, too. I don't think a boy with dyslexia would be at a significant disadvantage in one of these MB groups, and I'd be more than happy to spend a little extra time with a boy who needed it -- whether it was due to a disability or not.

 

In short, maybe a different MB Counselor is in order for CindyJ's boy, if at all possible. I can see how some of the MBs (maybe Personal Management??) might be nearly impossible to accomplish with severe dyslexia, but those can be substituted for different MBs with approval of the council.

 

I still think making the MB books available on audio would be a great resource for lots of boys.

 

-Liz

[Vicki]

Hmmm, I'm a PM MB counselor - I believe I could get him through it. A lot of that badge is discussion based on knowledge of various financial concepts. The 13 weeks of record keeping could be assisted by an adult, much along the lines OGE suggests - done on a computer, he might be able to handle it himself if his keyboard has a 10-key.

 

My nephew had severe dyslexia (I say had, not because he got over it, you don't, but because he has passed away). Letters and numbers just kept moving around on him - he said the only way he "managed" it was to memorize the alphabet and numbers in any direction they could appear to him. What a task.

 

Vicki

[Committee View]

I googled visually-impaired scouting and came up with these sites

 

http://www.blueridgecouncil.org/brcic/Advancement.aspx

Recordings of the Boy Scout Handbook and various merit badge pamphlets are available through Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic at 800-221-4792.

 

http://library.sd.gov/b&tb/newsletters/kids/2002/2002fall.htm

Boy Scout and Girl Scout Manuals Available

If you are a Boy Scout or Girl Scout and would like a copy of your handbook on cassette or braille, please call the library at 1-800-423-6665.

 

[Summitdog]

This is an old thread that could use reviving.  There are still a great many scouts with learning differences that could benefit for audio books.  I found the Merit Badge Handbook, the Boy Scout Handbook and the Scout Master Handbook all on:  https://learningally.org/

 

My son is really excited about finally being able to "read" on his own. 

 

Scotty

[desertrat77]

Welcome, Scotty!

[Chadamus]

Thanks for the link, Scotty!

[Buggie]

Reading this made me wonder, do they have the "Communication" MB book on audio? 

Yes, my mind goes to strange places. 

[mds3d]

On 10/23/2018 at 5:55 PM, Buggie said:

Reading this made me wonder, do they have the "Communication" MB book on audio? 

Yes, my mind goes to strange places. 

They sure do!

LearningAlly used to be Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. They used to send my brother his required reading (on 4 track tapes!).  What bothers me about them is that they restrict access to those with documented print reading disabilities.  It made sense when audiobooks use to be so hard to come by, but they just aren't anymore (they still charge $135/year).   I really think that there is nothing wrong with the audio medium for learning. It would be great for those audio learners to be able to have that additional resource even though they can read.  

[goldnloks]

I am so glad I found this thread!  I have 3 son's in Boy Scouts.  My youngest just crossed over and is profoundly dyslexic and has Dysgraphia.  My other 2 have very mild dyslexia and dysgraphia.  In fact the other 2 were not diagnosed until my youngest was diagnosed.  We already are members of Learning Ally and its a great program however its advertised that they have about 70 merit badge books available, problem is there are about 20 duplicates which means there are only about 30 individual books available and they are missing like three eagle required. In addition they have the scout handbook.  My oldest is a life scout and we have reached out to Learning Ally several times to have his Eagle project be get more merit badge pamphlets up and running and we were blocked in 2 directions.  First readers must audition, and second the reader has no choice in book selection they read...so back to the drawing board.  I scribe for my son's and we have listened to a few of the audio merit badge pamphlets on learning ally but we are now at a standstill.  For my youngest it takes so much effort to actually read what is written he can't comprehend what is being read.  He is a bright kid, has no issues with comprehension or cognition.  So I recently learned if you can get a PDF file of a book on the computer you can have it read to you, still have to try this out.  But I find it absolutely insane that BSA does not have audio books for those scouts with reading disabilities, or are visually impaired.  So this mom is on a quest.  Because obviously my kid is not the only dyslexic kid in scouting...

[MattR]

Welcome to the forum, @goldnloks

[Summitdog]

23 minutes ago, goldnloks said:

 So I recently learned if you can get a PDF file of a book on the computer you can have it read to you, still have to try this out.  But I find it absolutely insane that BSA does not have audio books for those scouts with reading disabilities, or are visually impaired. 

that is great information.  I did not know that.  Thank you very much.

Additional problems with Learning Ally is that the books are "old versions" as BSA regularly updates the requirements and produces new handbooks.  We ran into that problem last week when I numbered the blue card requirements as listed in the handbook I just purchased from the local BSA store only to find out it, too, was out of date. 

Thank you again for the information,

Scotty