Unlocking Language and Literacy for Deaf Learners through Sign Language Rich Environments

• In Event: The global effort for inclusive education

Proposal

The rapid advancement of technology has revolutionized every aspect of life, including education. As we progress further into the digital age, it is essential to reimagine and redesign education for diverse learners including those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing by focusing on accessibility and inclusion to ensure every learner reaches their fullest potential and thrives in this rapidly evolving digital society.
90-97% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, most of whom don’t know nor learn sign language therefore, school is often the first place where a deaf child encounters a language that is accessible to them (Shantie, C., & Hoffmeister, R. J. (2000). Language is the most valuable tool a person can acquire and often happens casually and incidentally and often completed by age 5 (Ramey S, Ramey C. Dickinson D, Neuman S.(2006). Yet the average age of starting school for deaf children is age 8 (eKitabu records, 2023) past the critical period on language development. This delay in language acquisition lowers their literacy levels depriving them of cognitive and social development and negatively impacts their academic progress (Murray, J., Hall, W., & Snoddon, K. (2019). Education and health of children with hearing loss: the necessity of signed languages. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 97(10), 711-716). This is compounded by the fact that most teachers are not fluent in sign language (Shantie, C., & Hoffmeister, R. J. (2000)
Studio KSL is an eKitabu innovation that develops and adapts educational content to be accessible for deaf learners in Kenyan Sign Language (KSL). The innovation provides content in a digital format which has sign language embedded videos, captions, and audio narration, as well as visually stimulating illustrations in the backgrounds. The digital content covers a range of thematic areas and allows the learner to interact and immerse themselves in content that is accessible to them in sign language, addressing the gap in lack of accessible teaching and learning materials for deaf learners. To date, we have also adapted content into other national sign languages- Ethiopian Sign Language, Tanzanian Sign Language, Malawian Sign Language, Zanzibar Sign Language, and Rwandan Sign Language.
Through the Digital Storytime (DST) project in Kenya, eKitabu’s studio KSL is researching the impact of creating sign language rich environments on deaf learners’ language acquisition and transition towards literacy by: 1) employing deaf teachers who are fluent in KSL; 2) providing accessible Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs); 3) providing Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for teachers by equipping them with bilingual Deaf education pedagogy skills to support language and literacy; and 4) utilizing a research-based Sign Language Acquisition Assessment Tool to measure progress and learning gains.
Early results from our 2022 pilot study in two units for the Deaf in Nairobi showed remarkable results of 220% increase in enrollment, 100% retention and 100% transition to the next grade with a 63% increase in learning gains. Based on these results we have scaled to 10 additional schools in Kenya, currently reaching 600 learners where we continue to research the impact of our intervention on language and literacy.
Through this presentation we will share our journey to unlocking language and literacy for learners who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, putting them on a path to educational success

Author

• GEORGINE AUMA OBURA, eKitabu