Breaking the sound barrier

Issue 20 | Spring/Summer 2007

Report: Karen Petersen
Photography: Melissa Di Ciero and Greg Ford

The work of a Monash academic to develop multimedia technology to teach sign language is being used across Australia.

The multimedia software, recently adopted by Deaf Children Australia, will help hearing-impaired children better communicate with their families and friends.

When it came to deciding on her PhD topic, Monash Berwick Information Technology academic Kirsten Ellis was driven by a desire to help people.

Ms Ellis' computer program helps children learn sign language.

"Like many researchers, I wanted my PhD to have a positive impact," Ms Ellis said. "I knew that I wouldn't be able to save the world, but if I could make life a bit easier for a particular group of people, then I would be satisfied that I had contributed in some way."

An academic and professional background in information technology helped her decide to develop new ways to teach sign language, by developing a new suite of computer software. She also wanted to produce a product that had impact but would not automatically attract commercial funding.

Teaching sign language to children was not an unknown practice to Ms Ellis, who had taught each of her own three children how to use basic signs to communicate with her by the time they were nine months old so she could better communicate with them earlier in their lives.

"Signing for things such as milk or juice became such a natural part of my children's worlds that extending the teaching of sign language to other hearing children, using my background in multimedia, seemed like a natural progression," she said.

The first part of the project was twelve months of extensive research into child education and the conventions of the hearing-impaired community.

"I wanted to ensure that I approached this project in the correct way," Ms Ellis said.

The developmental phase involved designing the look and feel of the program, the making of resources and shooting video features, which were integrated into the package.

Kirsten Ellis with twin daughters Sarah and Skye.

Early versions of the program were tested on children in kindergarten and Years Five and Six at Devon Meadows Primary School.

"The testing phase was extremely valuable as it provided the opportunity to find out what worked effectively and of course what didn't, so that I could refine the program," Ms Ellis said.

"I wanted this program to help hearing children to better communicate with their hearing-impaired classmates.

"The signs chosen to appear in the program had to reflect the types of interaction that would be natural to children in a kindergarten or school play situation. Finally settling on which ones to use was a lengthy process of research and elimination."

Now four-and-a-half years later, the final product is a software program titled 'Auslan for Kinder'.

The program uses a professional Auslan interpreter to demonstrate signs to users. It includes a variety of drill and practice styles and creative activities such as vocabulary instruction, an interactive storybook, a signed song and a game.

Alphy, a green monster puppet, also guides users through a range of activities aimed at increasing play-sign vocabulary, otherwise known as play lexicon.

Ms Ellis' work has definitely paid off with national not-for-profit organisation Deaf Children Australia adopting and extending the program.

"Deaf Children Australia has used the same framework to develop a multimedia program aimed at teaching Auslan to the parents of deaf children," Ms Ellis said.

"They have extended the number of signs from 50 in my version to more than 200.

"To say that I'm ecstatic with this result would be an understatement.

"I definitely didn't do this for money. I set out to help a group of people and I am proud of the positive impact that this project has achieved."