By Katharina Schalber | employee
GlobalGiving Report 2
Spring 2017
kinderhände – children’s hands
In preparation for the new kinderhände semester, in January and February we offered so called “Parents-Children-Cafés, a weekly forum for families and kids to get to know us, play, sing, learn new signs in Austrian sign language, or train the old ones. These informal meetings (also offered in July and September) are very popular among our participants, but also attracts new families and gives a chance to get connected, to ask questions or get information from one of the two Deaf and hearing educators who are always present. In average seven families attended each café. In March 2017 the new semester started with a workshop on the weekend for kids and ten courses for children and their parents or a family members. The youngest learners are six months old, the oldest over 50 years. To include the bilingual aspect, our courses are taught by a Deaf-hearing team. Thus all the content, exchange and communication are available in spoken German and Austrian sign language for all participants. Our educators serve as language role models for the kids, but also the parents who have to adjust to their life with a deaf or hard-of-hearing baby.
Offering sign language courses and counseling for families with deaf children is the main focus of kinderhaende. However, we also offer educators and nursery school teachers a modular training on how to use signs in learning settings for hearing, non-verbal children, for children with delayed language development or additional disabilities. So far six educational institutions and schools have booked this training and successfully apply the advantages of a visual language in the classroom or communicational settings.
Finally, we are proud to inform you that Barbara Schuster, the president of kinderhände, participated in a documentary movie which will be released on April 21th 2017 in movie theaters in Austria. The film is called “seeing voices, directed by Dariusz Kowalski. It portrays Deaf people in Austria and gives insights in their daily life, obstacles they face and joy they experience (more information: https://de-de.facebook.com/seeingvoices.derfilm)
Thank you for your support!
kinderhände Team
Links:
By Katharina Schalber | Project staff
By Katharina Schalber | kinderhande office
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