Hands Up: Books Open
Deaf Childhood Literacy
Roughly 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, over 75% of whom never learn to sign. As a result, deaf children have little to no language exposure until they enter school and even then, language exposure is limited to the school setting. Because of this, deaf children typically fall behind their hearing peers in literacy during early elementary school and most never catch up. The average deaf adult reads at the 4th grade level.
To combat this, DPS collects children's books and renders them deaf-friendly by printing and adhering pictures of ASL signs directly to book pages. Text is either translated word-for-word or supplemented with ASL vocabulary, thereby encouraging hearing parents to sign with their children while reading.
To combat this, DPS collects children's books and renders them deaf-friendly by printing and adhering pictures of ASL signs directly to book pages. Text is either translated word-for-word or supplemented with ASL vocabulary, thereby encouraging hearing parents to sign with their children while reading.
Ready to get involved? Click below to sponsor a book today!