Developing Online Training for Deaf Language Specialists: DOTDeaf
DOTDeaf project develops learning opportunities for Deaf adults, Deaf Language Specialists (DLSs), and co-working Speech and Language Therapists.
Deaf children are all different. Some use spoken English in everyday communication, others use British Sign Language (BSL); some children will use both. For some children, learning a language is easy, others may find it more of a challenge.
When hearing children struggle to learn language, speech and language therapists provide language therapy. Speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf often support deaf children and their families with ideas and advice about language. This project focuses on supporting deaf children to develop BSL by providing language therapy in BSL.
The DOTDeaf project (Developing Online Training with deaf people) has produced an introductory course aimed at deaf language specialists, speech and language therapists, and others interested in supporting BSL development. See the course page for more information about the course.
The project also has a blog. This is a place to share ideas and learn from other people who work with children who struggle to develop a signed language.
The project has developed over several years. Here’s a short video about the journey:
The DOTdeaf project involved partners in the UK, Spain, Brazil and Portugal. We worked together to create online learning resources in four sets of languages: English and BSL; Spanish and LSE, European Portuguese and LPG; and Brazilian Portuguese and Libras.
Each team had deaf and hearing members from different backgrounds including speech and language therapists, clinicians, educators, researchers, academics, linguists and trainers. To see information about modules in other languages, see the Other Languages section of our course page.
The DOTDeaf project was funded by an Eramsus+ grant from the European Union. This enabled us to create the training modules and make them free for learners to access. Information about the project will be available on the Erasmus+ site soon
We are grateful to the following people for their contributions:
- Families who allowed us to use their videos of children using a signed language
- Deaf language specialists and speech and language therapists who reviewed the modules as they were created
- Service managers who supported their teams to contribute to this co-production collaboration.
Disclaimer
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
