10 April 2009

Signed Stories

I've just come across Signed Stories a new ITV website, which shares educational stories through sign language, sounds and animated pictures.

Signed Stories has a very simple goal – to help improve the literacy of deaf children nationwide by allowing them to share in the joy of storytelling. It’s also designed to provide useful advice and guidance for the parents, carers and teachers of deaf children; and for the deaf parents of hearing children.

Signed Stories has been designed primarily as a website for deaf children – although hearing children will enjoy it too. It’s a fun, busy space which encourages children to explore and offers easy access to a wide range of the best of British books.

But it's also designed to be a resource for adults to use alongside children. The videos can be paused while you point to signs, illustrations and words, and the introduction will tell you why we've chosen those stories - which ones are good for introducing new signs or adding props and toys and which ones are simply fun to share.

I've just had a quick look and there are plenty of favourite titles including "Not Now Bernard", "Owl Babies", "Chimp and Zee" and "Six Dinner Sid". More books and nursery rhymes are promised throughout 2009 - so it's worth bookmarking and revisiting it over the coming months.

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