Give Deaf Children in Argentina a First Textbook

We are proud to present you our news about Deaf Children's Textbook to learn Spanish as a Socond Language!

We finished now our first step, eager to join with our supporters our achievements.

We came up with this question:

              Why would we want to create specially designed educational material for deaf children?

The team working on this Project came to the following conclusions in order to have clear goals, which have to be shared by everyone.

• All the textbooks are written in a language that deaf children do not understand. The natural language of deaf children is Sign Language but in Argentina textbooks are written in Spanish.
• Deaf children start school at the age of six without understanding or speaking Spanish, a strange language that they must learn.
• Textbooks have to take into account that for deaf children the goal is not only to teach them the language but also to teach them it’s writing system.
• In order for deaf children to learn Spanish as a second Language they need to have educational materials base don Sign Language and on visual strategies.
• Teachers need to relay on techniques with the focus on teaching written language for everyday life: how to ask for directions, what are the best sales in different markets, how to use programs in the computer, etc. Teaching the Written language is not just teaching the letters of the alphabet or how to write sentences.
• Explanations in class are not enough. In order to learn, children need to read at home, practice and conceptualize.
• Textbooks give parents the opportunity to accompany their deaf children’s learning experience. 

Based on these principles, we already have designed the six units that will conform the textbook. Each unit has an average of fifteen different activities, which include two activities using ICT. The units are unified through a story about a group of children that go camping and every unit is centered on a specific scientific area: magnetism, winds, climate, bugs, etc. We are about to start illustrating the book. Meanwhile, we are presenting you some pictures that exemplify our work.