School visit for Deafblind workshop, Newmark Primary on 30th May 2024.
Three of us Heather, commguide Ruth and interpreter Gen travelled by train to Williamstown to deliver a workshop to the Year 1 children, aged about 6 years old. Upon arrival, we were greeted by 30 very cute, excited children.
Heather presented about her life, how she was born Deaf and lost her sight later, and how she learnt many skills to regain her independence. She showed the children different Deafblind resources, household items such as a doorbell pager, measuring cups, and other things Deafblind people use for everyday life. The kids were awed by the feel of the braille book.
The children were given a guiding activity in pairs where one of them was blindfolded and the other guided them. They tried their best and it was very cute to watch.
Afterwards, they showed Heather the tactile boards they had made. Each board had a clay sculpture of an animal or fruit, the braille label for the name of the clay mould, and a drawing of the Auslan sign next to it. Heather had to see if the boards were understandable and she guessed some of them correctly – some she couldn’t guess because she didn’t know the names of the animals.
From Hilary (teacher):
The Foundation and Year One children have been learning about the 5 senses and understanding how we use senses to communicate and navigate the world. We explored disrupted senses and met people in the community who have a disrupted sense such as hearing or vision. We met a child with hearing impairment and learnt about his needs and ways to communicate with him using Auslan signs. We connected with his Early Learning Centre and collaborated with them to create resources for the educators and children to learn simple Auslan and Braille. This included Auslan and Braille cards with the alphabet, as well as communication boards with sculptures connecting to Braille and Auslan. The purpose of these boards is for people to use their sense of ‘touch’ to communicate. Heather used her sense of touch to feel the sculptures and was able to guess the animals and fruit sculptures as it led to the words in Braille.
