ELEVEN teachers, selected from nursery, primary and secondary schools and one parent have completed a six weeks sign language skills programme to teach hearing impaired children.
The course was arranged through the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Georgetown-based Community Based Rehabilitaion (CBR) Unit and the participants were taught the alphabet and how to construct paragraphs in sign language, among other things.
The aim was to bridge the gap between those who hear and the hearing impaired children and the sessions, that were conducted every Tuesday and Thursday from 14:30 h to 16:30 h, ended last Thursday at Linden Centre for Disabled Children at Mackenzie.
One of the facilitators, Ms. Arlett Pitt said the communication basics for school and family were taught.
She feels hearing impaired children are deprived of the opportunity to attend normal school because teachers are not equipped with the requisite knowledge to teach them and that perception resulted in the workshop being conducted.
One of the participants acknowledged the benefits of the course.
She said, firstly, it gave her an opportunity to deal with children and adults who suffer disabilities.