Talented Braille Reader from West Bloomfield Heads to National Event

Orchard Lake Middle School 6th grader Griffin Miller will head to Los Angeles, CA this week to compete for the fourth time in a national Braille reading competition. 

Blind since birth, Griffin has been a national finalist and took top honors in his first competition in 2nd grade. He then moved into an older age group, where he placed 3rd and then 2nd last year. 

"They really put on a nice event for the kids," Griffin's mother Rachel said. "There's a different theme every year ... and a big opening ceremony. A marching band plays while the kids come in on a red carpet." 

The competition started for Griffin with a preliminary test also taken by more than 1,000 students. At the beginning of May, the organization announces the top 60 students, who come from 39 states and two Canadian provinces. 

Griffin said he practices before the big event. "Sometimes, there will be on-line practice resources, and I look at what I did before to find mistakes," he said. 

An avid book-lover, Griffin said he began reading at around age 2 or 3 and loved the books he read in his 5th grade class at Doherty Elementary. One of his favorites is Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper, the story of a young girl with cerebral palsy who can't speak, "but had all this stuff going on in her head". 

Griffin said he enjoys "books about people like me who have things they can and can't do." 

Although math is his favorite subject, Griffin said, "I like to learn new things in general." That includes studying languages – Spanish, German and Chinese, so far. Before last year's competition, Patch reported that his I.Q. has been tested and scores possibly as high as 190, which puts him in the category of Genius, according to the Stanford-Binet Scale of Intelligence.

According to information provided by the National Braille Challenge, Griffin and other participants will test their skills in five categories, including Speed and Accuracy, in which participants must transcribe a story into braille at a furious pace, using an adaptive device called a Perkins Brailler. 

The purpose of the event is to promote braille literacy and proficiency, as well as to raise awareness of the importance of literacy for all children—sighted or blind.