Workshop for parents in Murshidabad

We were requested to carry out a training session for parents of deaf children in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

The three-day workshop led by Mukti Bhattacharya, a mother of a deaf child and trained teacher of the deaf, evoked a wonderful response among the 23 participants who were mainly from rural areas.

Parents at Murshidabad workshop - May 2007 Some of these parents had little education, some of them had never spoken out in public before, and some of them (like the mother who kept standing up every few minutes to ease her stiff bones!) were sitting on chairs for the first time in their lives!

The teaching sessions were very well received and aimed to help parents support their children to develop communication and language skills. The trainer drew on personal experience and involved her 26-year old deaf daughter to teach some basic signs to the families. All the families joined together to produce materials which would help their children to learn.

Some of the less educated parents found that the training helped them too. Two mothers who had no literacy skills discovered that the strategies being used actually enabled them to read their first words!

All the families were keen to continue learning more sign language as well as developing their reading skills.

If you would like more information about the workshop, please download the Murshidabad workshop report (196 kb).

There are currently no comments on this page.