Promoting captions at a young age benefits Deaf and hearing impaired students

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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 16:24pm

Introducing captions at an early age has benefits beyond the individual child, as it impacts on changing attitudes and practice for all concerned. Melissa Griswold’s article in The Hearing Journal, ’Introducing captioned media early’, outlines these psychological benefits. “Waiting until a child’s teen years to initiate discussion and practice – a time when students are more likely to reject anything that makes them feel different – can be risky.”

The article looks at how using captions in a family setting from a young age promotes positive attitudes towards captions. Ensuring that all content viewed in the family home and at school is captioned helps normalise a child’s experience. Griswold also encourages the hearing impaired child to take ownership and become the ‘technology expert’ for switching captions on.

Media Access Australia’s Accessible Education Database contains more than 800 captioned educational titles, categorised as suitable for primary, secondary, careers and vocational education. As the new school year has settled in, MAA calls on parents and teachers to register to access captioned resources and then upload their own titles to the database and comment on the efficacy of current resources.

Griswold’s article can be read at The Hearing Journal website.


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