Busy Hands
The Family Learning Programme, run in our family friendly facilities, provides opportunities for families of pre-school deaf children over and above what statutory services could provide alone. It consists of ‘Busy Hands’, which has been used by a range of families. We are grateful to Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council for providing staff to run these groups.
‘Busy Hands’ aims to build the children’s confidence, listening and speaking skills and developing their relationships with their parents and hearing siblings, in a fun, informal setting. This stage in the young child’s life is one of momentous change, as he/she develops not only physical and social skills but prepares to embark on a huge journey as an independent individual into a pre-school environment – a hard enough task for a hearing child let alone one with hearing impairment.
The programme is being developed to include sessions on behaviour management and we will work with parents to develop coping strategies and alternative approaches to deal with their children’s frustrations and fears.
‘Busy Hands’ meets on Wednesday mornings and, as the name of the group suggests, covers British Sign Language (BSL) with a BSL Interpreter being available.
Deaf pre-school children, their parents/carers and their grandparents are welcome to join this group. For further details telephone 0115 942 1985, or click on Contact Us and use the Enquiry Form to contact Suzanne Harrigan.