What is newborn hearing screening?
Links to useful information
South African Sign Language is a visual language. It is a distinct, complete language with its own grammar and it is used by the Deaf community in South Africa. It became the 12th official language in 2023. It is not related to any of the spoken languages in South African and it is completely different to American Sign Language.
To develop and assist your child to develop their language brain. Visual and spoken language use similar brain pathways. Deaf babies and children are predisposed to visual information. Developing language by using their strength supports verbal language, should that be the families choice. Visual and spoken language should be seen as complementary, not competing modes of communication. It also exposes your child to a bilingual existence - which has so many advantages in terms of brain growth.
SASL A teacher, friend & family resource for beginners, available by clicking on the button below, is a free downloadable pdf. document that provides a reference and starting point for learning. The 21 YouTube lessons provided by RealSASL is a fantastic adjunct.
Once you have a foundation - start practising SASL with your child whenever you can. It is fine to use verbal language at the same time. The NID has storybooks in SASL which will be a fun activity to perform together.
The SASL DEAFinition App is free to download and is an additional resource for learning South African Sign Language. Whether you want to communicate better with Deaf friends, colleagues, or customers, the app provides an extensive library of signs and phrases. Available on both Android and iOS, the app offers easy searching, hundreds of new words, and many more categories to explore.
Language grows fatest in the first four years of life. This is an important time to build strong connections for understanding and talking. Hearing words, listening to conversations, and being cared for help children to learn and use language.
Children learn to pay attention to sounds and voices before they learn to listen to language. Attention is the start of listening and learning. Talking, singing, or reading with other people helps them to build their attention and listening skills.
The brain gets better at hearing sounds, words, and the rhythm of talking. Listening helps children to understand. Understanding first is important and happens before they can learn to speak. The more language a child hears, the stronger their brain grows for learning.
As their memory develops, they learn to remember sounds and words and how to use them. The more they hear language around them, the more they are able to use it to train their brain to remember it.
Language is a social skill. Learning it happens when babies interact with children and adults. Back-and-forth interactions are the start of turn-taking in later conversations.
Real-life experiences are important for setting the foundation for language learning. Talking, playing, and exploring with other children and adults help them to connect with the world around them. This helps them to understand.
Although Cochlear developed these tools to help infants and toddlers with hearing loss to learn language - the principles of learning language are applicable to all. These tools guide parents in building strong communication skills.
Although Hearing First developed these tools for infants and toddlers with hearing loss, they are valuable to any parent who would like practical steps to help their child learn to listen, speak, and read. They are designed to build daily routines for language learning, support early reading, and open up new opportunities for connection and learning for all children.
There is also a webinar series for parents. This may rely on higher data requirements.
The Listening Room offers free, fun activities to help parents build their child’s listening and speaking skills at home. Designed for children with hearing loss but useful for all children. It requires you to signup and login. It contains songs, stories, and games for all ages, making language learning enjoyable.
It is available in the following languages: Afrikaans, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, multiple English dialects, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish (with regional variants), Swati, Turkish, and Vietnamese .
Wordworks' central repository is full of fun, interactive games focusing on language and early literacy. This website is data free, and the play ideas are available in four languages (English, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, isiZulu). This is ideal for home and helps language development from birth to 6 years old.
Take the first step to educational success.
FREE content. No data costs.
It is CAPS aligned.
It is available in multiple languages. All you need to do is register with a valid email address.
Vodacom customers don't pay for data or content when using Vodacom e-Learning. Learn anywhere - on your smartphone, tablet or desktop computer.
LEARN | Easy-to-follow video lessons developed by expert teachers for Grades R - 12. Study at your own pace. Rewind and paude video lessons.
REVISE | Homework questions after video lessons make sure you stay on top. Interactive quizzes at the end of topics help youo to test your knowledge.
EVALUATE | Evaluate your progress across individual subjects. Earn badges and certificates for progress.
Includes resources for parents and learners and academic material to support your child. For a comprehensive experience you will need to register, but there are also resources available without registering.
The African Lullaby project emerges out of desire to expand on the rich heritage of African folklore and create unique content for children (and indeed parents) which is representative of the African culture. This compilation was assembled by team Platoon Africa in conjunction with some exceptional South African voices we have the privilege of working along-side.
Provided to YouTube by PLATOON LTD One Day · Teni One Day ℗ 2022 TENI Released on: 2022-05-06 Engineer: Ramera Abraham Music Publisher: SJO Music Publisher: TENIOLA APATA Arranger: SJO Composer Lyricist: Teniola Apata
Reading to babies, toddlers and small children is so important. It helps their brain grow. Babies whose parents read to them hear 30 million more words before they start school. This builds their vocabulary, which helps them learn to read and spell. This is essential for learning at school. Help your baby prepare for school by reading to them everyday.
Reading to your baby or toddler is like giving their brain a hug.
#HOPE-learn
This project was initiated on 27 April 2024 as part of a World Reading Day Initiative. The goal is to complete 24 online books, that require no data for users, by 27 April 2026.
30 MILLION WORD GAP PROJECT
