With babies known to acquire literacy skills from birth, the availability of picture cards, board/cloth books, posters and materials gives a head-start.
Reading is a vital way for children with hearing issues to access information in their daily environments – for educational, social and computer literacy.
Seeing And Hearing Words Together
A researcher in Italy, Dominic Massaro, sees a link to literacy in children who simultaneously lip-read (see) and hear words. He has tested a speaking avatar with children who have autism and hearing-issues, with great results. Massaro’s focus is reading ability when words are seen and heard together.
Read: Can Babies Read? (Salon.com)
Separately, Massaro has a tech patent for transcribing a parent or care-giver’s spoken words into text, on a ‘digital t-shirt’, and with which motion sensors can show a label on the t-shirt, for example, ‘your bedroom’.
Daily Reading Raises Childrens’ Literacy Levels
In Ireland, a challenge is to raise literacy levels, with a drop in teen reading since 2000, a time that coincides with the rise of screen-reading.
Over half a million adults in Ireland struggle with literacy difficulties every day (one in four of the populace). However, support is provided by agencies like NALA, and a new NALA website, helpmykidlearn.ie. The really important issue is to read with your child every day, even for just five to ten minutes.
Further Reading
- New Study: Babies Learn Language By Lip-Reading
- Listening & Speakng: A Link To Reading/Writing?
- What Exactly Does Oral Deaf Education Involve?
- Parent Question: How Early To Teach Lip-Reading?
- Lipreading For Children: Challenges And Benefits
- Visual Learning In The Preschool & Primary Years (pdf file)
- Parent Involvement In Child Education Is Essential
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