FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — While some people may believe that a blind or visually impaired person is not capable of doing everything a person with full sight can do, Kaleigh Brendle is an example of a person who does not let her lack of full sight stop her.
Kaleigh, 8, the daughter of Heather and Jim Brendle, is a bright young student who attends the West Freehold School and is out to show people that people like her who are visually impaired are not incapable of achieving their goals.
Recently, Kaleigh placed among the top students in her age group at the only national academic competition for blind pupils in the United States — the 11th annual National Braille Challenge — which was held at Braille Institute of America in Los Angeles on June 25, 2011.
Kaleigh placed third in the Apprentice level of the competition, which was comprised of the top blind and visually impaired students in grades one and two from across the United States and Canada.
Kaleigh, who recently completed the second grade, was awarded a $500 savings bond and a trophy.
In an interview with the News Transcript, Kaleigh said the competition was made up of three categories: spelling, proofreading and comprehension.
The spelling portion consisted of the children being tested on 60 words; the proofreading portion consisted of reading a passage and correcting the mistakes; and the comprehension portion required the children to read a story and answer questions about it.
Kaleigh said she was very excited to finish third in the competition, especially because of the prize she received.
Her aide, Marci Roche, who is a paraprofessional, said she tries to give Kaleigh a lot of independence when the youngster is completing her work.
“Try to foster independence. You can’t be by their side all the time,” Roche said. “She is encouraged to try to do everything by herself, and if she needs help, all she has to do is ask.”
Kaleigh’s mom, Heather, said her daughter is very competitive and likes to win at everything she does.
Kaleigh, who will be entering a program for gifted and talented students when she begins third grade in September, said her favorite subjects are reading and writing. She enjoys reading, and one of her favorite series is the Encyclopedia Brown books.
Kaleigh’s mom said she has just ordered the first book in the Harry Potter series and expects Kaleigh to enjoy reading that story.
Kaleigh said that someday she would like to be an astronaut or an author.
According to a press release from the Braille Institute of America, the Braille Challenge is the only national academic competition for blind students in the nation. It is specifically designed to challenge and motivate students, while encouraging them to continue their study of Braille.
This year’s participants competed in a series of categories that required them to transcribe, type and read Braille using a device called a Perkins Brailler.
The competition was designed to test their Braille skills in several areas — reading comprehension, Braille spelling, chart and graph reading, proofreading and Braille speed and accuracy.
Nearly 900 blind students from across the United States and Canada completed preliminary testing to qualify for the national competition, but only the top 60 students were selected to travel to Los Angeles to test their Braille skills against the nation’s best and brightest. The winners were announced at an awards banquet, and actor Bill Chott, from the Disney show “Wizards of Waverly Place,” handed out the awards.
Kaleigh started learning to read Braille when she was 3 years old. She grew up with Braille as part of a household in which her older brother, Cody, 12, is blind, and her mom learned to read Braille in order to be able to assist her children. Cody is a student at the Barkalow Middle School.