Seminars on Technology and the Education of Deaf children

Seminars on the use technology as a means to educate deaf children were made possible by RWF throughout Italy, from 2006 to 2009. Some of these seminars were organized with the collaboration of Ente Nazionale Sordi, the Mason Perkins Deafness Fund and LISME.DI.A.

The seminars were aimed at teachers, parents, speech therapists, psychologists, researchers, assistants, educators, and doctors who work with deaf children and their families. The goal was to train professionals to be a strong resource and to promote the use of LIS (Italian Sign Language) at home or at school. The use of LIS was also encouraged at places children usually met and interacted with each other such as at toy libraries, daycares, parish recreation centres, scout groups, sports teams, counseling centers, diagnosis and rehabilitation centers.

The seminars, in fact, stressed the importance of the deaf child being able to learn and use their “natural” language in order to achieve full cognitive development and a peaceful approach to understanding spoken language.