Sueñaletras is a software designed to support the teaching of reading and writing to children with full or partial deafness. It mediates learning in three modes:

Context

In Latin America and the Caribbean between 70% and 80% of the children with disabilities do not have access to education. Sign language is not a universal tongue. Every country has their own sign language, and sometimes even different communities within a country have their own too. Sign language in a particular country is not a direct translation of the national language. For example, people who have full of partial deafness and are fluent in Colombian Sign Language are not necessarily fluent in Spanish.

Las dificultades de aprendizaje de la lectoescritura en estudiantes sordos no derivan exclusivamente de la dificultad o impedimento para oír, sino que dependen también de las metodologías de enseñanza utilizadas. A través de este proyecto se busca medir las implicancias de la tecnología como apoyo a la educación de niños sordos.

Objectives of Sueñaletras

The objective of Sueñaletras is to support teachingof the deaf or hard of hearing students by facilitating their approach to the reading-writing process, thereby promoting various areas of development, regardless of the educational levels at which it is employed, showing features such as:
• Encouraging the acquisition of vocabulary, either in sign language or written, through an interactive process in which teachers and students participate.
• Strengthening theshort and long termmemory for written language.
• Encourage reading through a set of stories and fables, while facilitating understanding with illustrative images.

Awards

Sueñaletras won one the six WISE Awards 2011. Since 2009, WISE Awards has received more than 1300 postulations from 116 countries and, this year, Sueñaletras was honored to be considered a project with an important impact on education and society.

Please watch this interesting documentary film about Sueñaletras http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/suenaletras-web-documentary

About the Software

Sueñaletras allows for an exchange of media (videos, images, texts) in a simple and transparent manner and can be easily translated into various sign languages, allowing different communities to have a new teaching tool. It includes mediation of learning to read by three means:
• Sign language
• Finger alphabet
• Lip-reading

The software is designed so that media (video, images and text) can be easily changed to provide translations to different sign languages. There are versions for Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Argentina and Colombia, and CEDETI is currently developing versions for Catalunya and Panama.

Currently publicly available are Chilean, Mexican, Uruguayan, Costa Rican, Spanish, Catalan, Argentina and Colombian versions, and CEDETI is developing the Panamanian version. Sueñaletras is aimed primarily at children between 4 and 10 years with partial or total hearing loss. Similarly it has been observed that Sueñaletras has benefited adult people with partial or complete hearing loss, and relatives of people with partial or complete hearing loss, among others.

Clicking on this link you can see a video that was prepared to explain in w what needs to be done to record a sign. View video: How to make recordings for Sueñaletras? To read testimonials from users and teachers click here and enter directly to the official

Acerca de CEDETI

The Technology Development Center of Inclusion (www.cedeti.cl) began in 2006 as an initiative of a group of professionals, mostly teachers of the School of Psychology at the Pontifical University of Chile, who already had worked on the development of educational software for people with disabilities.
CEDETI is aimed at developing and promoting technological tools, accessible in practical and economic terms that can help people with disabilities, both in educational situations and expanding its autonomy in everyday life. On the other hand, currently tests are being done to assess literacy and phonemic awareness in children from pre-kindergarten to fourth grade, and standardizing international psychometric batteries in order to adapt them to the Chilean population, among many other activities.

Objectives of the project together with the IDB:

1. Adaptand translate the Sueñaletrassoftware into Chilean, Mexican and Uruguayan sign language.
2. Disseminate the Sueñaletrassoftware to education professionals in Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, so that they can use it for teaching literacy of deaf students.
3. Establish a protocol procedure for the translation of the Sueñaletrassoftware, allowing other deaf communities in the region to access and translate it to their local sign language.

Sueñaletras Facts

Activity: Supporting literacy learning for children with hearing disabilities
Organization: Center for the Development of Inclusion Technologies – CEDETI
Sector: Technology and inclusion
Country: Chile
Reach: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Spain
Number of beneficiaries: 22 000 downloads
Date of creation: 2006