Early Sign Bilingual Development Programme

start-up, education and learning, persons with disabilities, Impact Incubator

Development and provision of sign bilingual training services and learning package for deaf/hard-of-hearing children and their families

  

The venture owner SLCO Community Resources Limited proposes to launch a two-year programme which provides early sign bilingual (i.e. sign language and oral language) training services to deaf/hard-of-hearing children. The programme consists of two key components, namely Fun with Sign and Speech (FS2) Classes, and research and development of FS2 Learning Package.

The FS2 Classes aim to help deaf/hard-of-hearing children build up language foundation through sign bilingual language activities. The children’s parents will also attend the classes and learn sign language with their kids in order to facilitate parent-child interactions and communication. The classes will also be extended to hearing children and children with special education needs (SEN). It can help demonstrate how cross-modal (auditory and visual mode of communication) bilingual input could contribute to children’s overall development and social inclusion.

The FS2 Learning Package will be developed and written in Chinese and Hong Kong sign language. It will consist of illustrated stories, flash cards, story-based activities and sign language videos to help parents and children to learn sign language with ease. The learning materials will be available for sale after research and development.

 

  • Click here to learn more about the "Hong Kong Social Innovator" behind this venture.
  • Click on the image below for a video featuring the venture, produced by a team of young people under the Social Innovation Short Film Sponsorship Scheme.
 

Name of Organisation

SLCO Community Resources Limited

Approved Funding Amount

HK$1,000,000

Funding Period (Status)

2 years (Ended)

Impact/Outcomes

  • Trained 39 instructors (including 16 deaf and 23 hearing) and hired 5 deaf trainees as instructors
  • Conducted over 770 sessions of “Fun with Speech and Sign” and other classes benefiting over 240 children, including:
    - nearly 90 deaf/hard-of-hearing children; and
    - over 150 hearing children
  • Produced 1 000 sets of learning packages and sold over 540 sets
  • Achieved an overall satisfactory rate of over 75% in the post-service questionnaire conducted with parents of participating children

Website

www.slco.org.hk