Puppet Teaches Students Sign Language

VIDEO [CC] - Puppet teaches students sign language in the mainstream school.



TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. - (WLFI) From their ABCs, to different types of animals, Friday, students at Wea Ridge Elementary School learned how to communicate with the Deaf through sign language.



Yet, students didn't learn from just anyone. They were taught by Mandy the Puppet. The play is put on by a group called "Kids First."



Program Coordinator Gail McCormick said the program began locally in 1994. "The goal of the program is to make the students realize that they can be accepting of children with special needs, of individuals with special needs," said McCormick.

McCormick said the play focuses on a girl named Mandy. Mandy is approached by a young girl who loses her kitten, and together, they find the lost kitten by using sign language.



Volunteer Beata Ribeiro said using puppets to illustrate the communication barrier allows kids to kick down their own barrier when it comes to asking questions. ...Read more: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local/puppet-teaches-students-sign-language

Creating Music Accessible For Deaf Children

VIDEO [BSL/CC] - BBC News - Creating music accessible for Deaf children.



Lying on a sound box: Deaf children listen to music - The National Orchestra of Wales has staged a series of workshops and concerts for Deaf people, many of them children, to explore how it is possible to experience music without being able to hear it fully.



The National Orchestra of Wales has been staging unique workshops and concerts for Deaf people. Radio 4 reporter Andrew Bomford discovers children listening to music in a very physical way and speaks to those behind it. Here he blogs about his emotional day.

I'll admit that I am a bit weepy sometimes. I cried at the end of Les Miserables, so the moment that the Welsh National Orchestra string section got started, and Katherine Mount stood there, signing and singing to her profoundly deaf - but clearly enraptured - ten year old son Ethan, I wasn't surprised to feel myself choking up again. Watch Katherine Mount singing Ethan's Song on YouTube



It was towards the end of a long, joyful, but emotionally draining day with the orchestra and children from The Ysgol Maes Dyfan special school in Barry near Cardiff. Some of them are almost completely deaf and others have serious hearing problems, but the joy and enthusiasm shown by the children in their appreciation of the music they were experiencing was wonderful to see. ... Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2013/02/lying_on_a_sound_box_deaf_chil.html