Izokuvulela Umnyango: Opening doors for families of deaf children

SLED have been funded to produce two resources to help social workers and schools support the hearing parents of deaf children.

Recipient:
Sign Language Education & Development
Country:
South Africa
Project contact:
Cara Loening (Sign Language Education & Development)
Start date:
01 December 2005
End date:
30 April 2007
Total budget:
115,220.00 ZAR (�9,856.29)
Beneficiary type:
Parents, School aged children
Project type:
Parents' group, Sign language, Information materials

Summary:

In order to overcome the communication gap between hearing parents and their deaf children, SLED will create two accessible and innovative tools. Firstly a video for parents will cover deaf awareness and sign language learning and a set of flipcharts will be used by schools, social workers and deaf auxilliary workers to work with familiies to improve communication.

Aim:

The central aim of this three month long project is to produce a training tool kit to be used to assist parents and families of deaf children to:

  • understand the language and communication needs of their deaf children
  • develop ways of coping with frustration and emotional issues and to build a confident and independent deaf child
  • learn South African sign language as well as ways of coping with emotional issues
  • facilitate an understanding between the language, culture and world of deaf children, their parents and local community

Beneficiaries:

  • The development of the kits will involve 6 members of SLED (deaf and hearing) as well as 10 families of deaf learners both rural and urban.
  • 30 toolkits will be produced in this phase of the project, but eventually it is expected that the toolkit will reach approximately ¼ of the 6000 deaf learners in S Africa

Activities:

  • Initial research to identify topics for the materials
  • Development and production of a video
  • Development of flip charts
  • Translation of the video and flip charts into English and isiZulu.
  • Distribution of the toolkit to 30 deaf auxiliary workers.
  • Training and copying of kits carried out by DeafSA and Dept. for Social Development. Training to be given at the national conference for social workers and deaf auxiliary workers.
  • Monitoring of a sample of users at Vuleka School for the Deaf.

Achievements:

The project took longer than expected and SLED had more ideas for elements of the toolkit which would be useful for work with very young deaf children. However the project has produced a set of materials which will be a useful resource for preschools, deaf auxilliary workers, social workers and parents.

The Opening Doors for Families of Deaf Children toolkit includes:

  1. Understanding your young Deaf child in both DVD and Video format. This is a signed presentation with voice over in English or isiXhosa with practical examples of parents with Deaf children.
  2. Understanding your young Deaf child - illustrated Flip charts with no text. The illustrations are applicable to rural and urban townships. There is text on the reverse of the flip chart which will be used by social workers / teachers when presenting the toolkit. 
  3. A Dictionary for Families with Young Deaf children in DVD and video fomrat. This shows over 150 words signed and then used in context in sentences. It is aimed that this is a learning resource and not just a list of words!
  4. A Dictionary for Families with Young Deaf children - a book with over 150 signs illustrated by black line drawings. This includes information on using the dictionary, and on using SASL properly. The drawings convey facial expressions, directional movements as well as handshapes.
  5. Mommy and Nomsa make soup - in DVD and video format. This was originally produced for the Life Skills, HIV and AIDS for the Deaf Learner project. It shows best practice in caring for your young Deaf child. Read the SLED paper about this project which was presented at the International Congress on Education of the Deaf in 2005
  6. Phuti is born A 12-page A4 landscape book with detailed illustrations and no text. This story starts from before Phuti is born, goes through his birth experience, notifying the father working on the mine of the birth, father's celebrations at the mine, father returning home and ends with the family celebrating the blessing of his birth.
  7. Phuti is born - DVD and VHS South African Sign Language story. This can be used in conjunction with the book as a tool for developing SASL literacy in young children.
  8. All the items in the toolkit are packed in an easy to carry denim bag produced by the Deaf Community of Cape Town's deaf women's sewing group. Read more about IDCS's work with the Deaf Community of Cape Town

Testing and development

Producing high quality materials which really respond to the needs of deaf children and their families takes time! SLED worked with families, organisations and teachers to make sure the toolkit achieved its objectives. This included:   

  • Consultation with deaf auxiliary workers and social workers as to how they might use the tools
  • Consultation with parent development and deaf organisations to develop ideas for the flipchart and DVD on Understanding your deaf child.
  • An unforeseen opportunity to test the materials with 30 families in Namibia. This 3-day training workshop was set up by IDCS parnter CLaSH after the organisations found out more about each other's work at the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf in 2005. This provided an invaluable opportunity to pilot early drafts of the materials, discuss parents' needs and adapt the materials accordingly. Read more about IDCS's work with CLaSH.
  • Pilot testing of the wordless books and SASL stories (DVDs) was carried out with pre school deaf children and their teachers in 2 schools. Teachers were very positive about the experience and monitoring visit showed improvements in children's SASL literacy (eg use of complex classifiers, non-manual features) and parents/teachers (more likely to use SASL word order and use of placement/handshapes more accurate)  
  • Translations were checked for accuracy and context by employing two translators - first to translate from English to isiXhosa and then to translate back from isiXhosa to English

Learning

  • The dictionary was not originally planned but responded to the need most expressed by parents of deaf children in South Africa. This was made even more useful by creating sentences and pictures which enabled all the signs to be used in context.
  • The dictionary was more time-consuming project than anticipated. When producing dictionaries, capturing non manual elements such as facial expressions, use of space and directional arrows - using drawings is challenging but possible.
  • When selecting signs for the dictionary, the most widely used or occasionally the most iconic signs were chosen. 
  • Wordless books accompanied by DVDs are perfect tools for teaching SASL with age-appropriate fluency, especially because the topics are easy for deaf children to relate to their own experiences. The story and book support each other and allow for different styles of learning.

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