We develop teaching materials about sign language and deafness. These materials are aimed at mainstream primary schools and (language) festivals and activities, such as Drongo and Kletskoppen. With these materials, we aim to broaden the awareness of children and their parents and teachers of the impact of deafness and sign language on deaf people’s lives. Short series of teaching materials are created for various age groups, which we can use as a toolkit to re-use at different places. The first set of materials consists of live sessions of around half an hour with a fluent signer (ideally, a deaf person) for hearing children and their teachers in mainstream primary schools. The aim of this set is a) to teach some signs, b) to inform about deafness and its impact on language use, and c) to increase awareness of the impact of having a deaf child in a hearing family and in mainstream schools, which many deaf children attend.
The second set of materials consists of online materials, which can be used by mainstream teachers and the children in their classes, initially for children between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The online materials will be added to our website, which has been developed to inform hearing parents of deaf children about deafness, sign language, and visual communication. This website will be extended for various education purposes.
