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Life and Deaf Project
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‘Life & Deaf’ was a Speech and Language Therapy project, which aimed to develop Deaf children’s self-esteem and communication in signed, spoken and written languages. In Speech and Language Therapy sessions, the children explored their feelings about their Deaf identity. They created mindmaps from brainstorms, explored poetry about identity in different cultures, developed their vocabulary of emotions and wrote their own unique poetry. As the project developed, the Deaf children worked with Deaf poets, Deaf Instructors and actors to translate their written poetry into BSL and learn to perform this confidently and professionally. They then worked with designers, photographers, film-makers and editors (both deaf and hearing) to create a beautiful book and a DVD of their BSL poetry. Each child worked with a designer to design the look of their poem in the book. ‘Life & Deaf’ was launched in October 2006 to an audience of 300 people at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich University. The sequence of 16 poems represented a broad range of positive and negative thoughts, views and feelings about Deafness, including attitudes towards cochlear implants, mainstream education, living in a hearing family, friendships, culture and communication modes. A beautiful, interactive exhibition was held in this gallery space and was visited by many members of the public. The book and DVD was widely distributed to many Deaf children, their families, professionals, charities and organisations and the wider community of London and beyond. The performance was filmed by the BBC’s ‘SeeHear’ and local press (see Reviews). The children also performed in assemblies at school and ‘Life & Deaf’ has been placed on the English curriculum. In the future we hope to develop therapy materials so that this project can be repeated across the UK. The children loved each stage of this project.
More information …
‘Life & Deaf’ encouraged children to consider language as descriptive not prescriptive, where grammatical rules can be broken and meaning remain powerful. Through the poetry, the children explored their identity as teenagers, as Deaf people and as students. They expressed their emotions, feelings and beliefs.
‘Life & Deaf’ aimed to develop communication, confidence and self-esteem, all essential to good mental health. It supported the Department of Health’s vision for every child to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well being.
‘Life & Deaf’ was organised by Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust, Greenwich Education and Deaf children at Support Centres within mainstream schools. We are extremely grateful to the British Deaf Association for the opportunity given to the children to perform their poems in British Sign Language at City Hall during BSL Recognition week 2006, with guidance from the celebrated Deaf poet Richard Carter. The children involved in this project were mostly aged between 11 and 19 years. They are moderately to profoundly deaf and many are developing strong skills in British Sign Language. The children are educated within four provisions in Greenwich, where different communication approaches reflect the children’s differing needs. Deaf children have the same cognitive abilities and same potential for language learning as hearing children. Some children are oral, some use British Sign Language and some use a combination of speech and sign.
Many signing children learn to sign late or grow up in families where sign language is not used fluently. This mismatch in communication means that some children do not achieve their potential for language and literacy. In addition, some Deaf children have special educational needs, including learning difficulties, dyspraxia, dyslexia, Usher syndrome or language disorder. Making mistakes is part of the process of learning a language. ‘Life & Deaf’ offers raw and honest poetry; there has been no attempt from adults to change or polish the poems. The poems communicate powerful messages reflecting the true thoughts and feelings of the poets. This is a celebration of the young poets’ achievements as they learn British Sign Language. ‘Life & Deaf’ was launched during the British Deaf Association’s ‘Learn to Sign week’ 2006. Many Deaf children want their family, friends and peers to learn British Sign Language. Learning a new language is challenging but also extremely rewarding. British Sign Language is one of over 100 languages used in the London Borough of Greenwich and was finally recognised as a minority language in the UK in 2003 (British Deaf Association website, 2006). Learning British Sign Language opens the door to communicating with around 120,000 people in the UK and to experiencing a rich and historic community and culture. We hope you enjoy ‘Life & Deaf’, created by Deaf children with different beliefs, attitudes, feelings and experiences. ‘Life & Deaf’ celebrates British Sign Language, cultural diversity, poetry, art and performance. It is a celebration of youth, freedom of expression and the identity of the individual.
Jane Thomas and Katie Martin, MSc MRCSLT
Specialist Speech & Language Therapists working with Deaf Children
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