The production team for the BBC programme See Hear visited the School of Education in July to film an interview with Dr Linda Watson, based around International Literacy Day which takes place on 8 September 2012. Linda’s particular interest is in early language and literacy development of young deaf children, and how this can be enhanced by the use of cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids.
Linda was interviewed by Clive Mason, who has been a presenter for over 20 years and was the first See Hear presenter to use British Sign Language (BSL) on television. BSL has only been recognised by the Government as an official language since 2003.
In the interview, Linda talked about conditions that underpin literacy learning for all children, such as language development, wide vocabulary and understanding of story structure and how parents can help their deaf child. She stressed the need to remember that deaf children are a heterogeneous group, with varied needs and how these link to learning literacy. She discussed how recent developments in technology, such as digital hearing aids and cochlear implants, have enabled many more deaf children to learn to read and write using spoken language, whilst other deaf children benefit from being taught using BSL to help them to learn to read and write.
The programme will be broadcast on BBC2 at 1.30pm, on Wednesday 5 September 2012.
UNESCO Literacy Portal: International Literacy Day (8 September)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/seehear
Contact: l.m.watson@bham.ac.uk