Joy Darby: Children’s books teaching deaf awareness skills  

Books are a great way of educating young children and books about deafness can break through barriers, setting up a sense of deaf awareness that can go on for years.

Here’s just a few books which are great for deaf awareness!

Proud to be Deaf

Proud to be Deaf is a brilliant book printed in 2017 about seven year old Ava Beese as she lives her normal everyday life, as part of a Deaf family in London.

The book has lots of information boxes on ‘Deaf Achievers’ such as Ashley Fiolek – a professional motocross rider who won the Women’s Motorcross Championship four times.

This is a very effective way of gently introducing the concept that Deaf people can do whatever they want with their lives.

The book allows the reader to see how Ava goes about her life, going to school, seeing friends and answers many of the questions young readers may have about British Deaf culture and life.

The book is very easy to read and contains lots of photos of Ava and her family. At the back of the book is a section designed to introduce the reader to some British sign language signs, but I would highly recommend this book whether your based in the UK or further afield.

Teachers and parents often use books to introduce children to new ideas, so in the remainder of this article, I have highlighted a few books which teach the reader new idea’s such as the importance of lip reading and getting the Deaf persons attention before talking etc.

Friends, like you

Friends, like you – 2007 By Melissa Griswold (Authur) & Cynthia Fisher (Illustrator) Published by the mainstream centre Clarke.

The book focuses on Molly and Max who are two regular kids who happen to have a hearing loss. Listening can be hard work and misunderstandings happen sometimes, but they don’t let their hearing loss stop them from making friends and having fun!

Designed to be used as a teaching tool for raising awareness about hearing loss and promoting friendships in primary school-aged children, can also be purchased with an educator’s guide and children’s activity books.

Freddie and the Fairy

Freddie and the Fairy – 2011 by Julia Donaldson(Author) & Karen George (Illustrator)

This book has five stars on Amazon, for a reason. It is written by the hugely popular children’s author Julia Donaldson who has had hearing loss since her student days.

The story tells how Freddie helps the fairy out from a tree and she says ‘I’ll grant you all your wishes, Through I can’t hear you very well.’ The fairy then is not able to grant the wishes correctly as the author plays on rhyming words and grants a ‘Frog’ instead of a ‘Dog’ etc and ‘Carrot’ instead of a ‘Parrot’.

Then the Fairy Queen arrives and gives Freddie three golden rules for communicating with the Fairy; Don’t mumble, Don’t turn away and Don’t cover your mouth.

My friend is Deaf

My Friend is Deaf – 2015 by James Kerwin (Author) & Marie Kerwin (Illustrator) Written by James Kerwin who is profoundly deaf and a qualified and registered teacher who specialises in teaching Auslan (Australian sign language.)

This book was inspired by his childhood friendship with a hearing child known as Jenny. The book explains sign names, fingerspelling, lip reading and other communication tactics.

The book does reference some Auslan signs and so this would be an ideal way to introduce the idea that each country has its own sign language. The book also looks at some of the technology and devices used by some deaf individuals.

Joy Darby runs a YouTube channel dedicated to helping others learn British Sign Language relevant to their life. She can also be found at @BslEveryday retweeting material of interest to BSL learners and she blogs at everydaybsl.wordpress.com on toys and products of interest to BSL learners and parents of parents of deaf children.