Welcome to I Can Hear You – the first children's book accessible to hearing-impaired children May 31, 2023 – Posted in: Books, Children – Tags: , ,

Fourfouri publications had a strong presence at the 19th Thessaloniki International Book Fair, not only with their wonderful stand in the Children's Corner, but also with 3 excellent events. In one of them, a special children's book was presented with great success.

The "I hear you" by the Italian deaf author Monica Taini is the first children's book that is accessible to children with hearing problems and was presented at the 19th Thessaloniki International Book Fair on Saturday, May 6. The book translated by Chrysostomos Barbaridis is released together with a qr code which leads to the rendering of the book in sign language, by the actress of the KTHBE deaf theater, Evanthia Plachoura. The book was presented by Elpida Karageorgiou, owner of the Vineta bookstore and years in the education of the deaf, who helped significantly in the realization of this project, as well as the audiologist Stamatia Staikoudi. At the event that was performed and at the nomematics we heard the impressions and more about the creation of this book and we bring them to you.

Elpida Karageorgiou emphasized: "It was very important for me to do something like this at some point. I have to say first of all congratulations to Fourfouri publications because they always choose special books and special ones and I am very glad that they decided to give a voice to people to tell their own story, especially when that story is so special, that it opens a window into to get to know the world of the special deaf-hard of hearing community. Monika as she is or Monique as she likes to call herself tried to communicate in her own special way to all of us how she herself experiences deafness, her own experiences and representations of all that is happening. It is necessary to be able to hear each story of each person and in all this effort he tried to show us what the culture of these people is like.

Before we get into the book I would like to tell you a personal story of mine. At one point when I intervened with a child of toddler age and his parents and I decided to go see how he is in school, how he behaves, if he integrates and so on, because he was in a hearing school, the child being deaf. Well, I went, I observed all day what was happening, at first I can say that it was integrated normally, the children always find a way to communicate and interact with each other, breaking every communication barrier, until it was time to read a story. For me it is a sacred moment, when you sit and listen to a fairy tale. So the teacher sat down and placed the children in a semi-circle in front of her. The children sat and listened to the story – the deaf child had to be there waiting patiently for the process to pass without being able to draw anything from the whole experience. This rocked my world, because I wondered if it was his difficulty hearing what was denying him the ability to live and experience the experience of traveling through the telling of a fairy tale, or the teacher's lack of effort to fix it. It is very important that each of us makes the effort, it is an individual initiative to have access to everyone.

That's why I'm very happy that our proposal to have books that will have performance in sign language was accepted by Fourfouri publications and they started to implement it, as apart from "I hear you", 5 new titles are expected which will have a qr code and children will be able to access so that they can enter the magical world of children's literature. Which children's literature, beyond socio-emotional development and how much it helps in it, has many benefits. The cognitive benefits are extremely important, as anyone who has worked in deaf education knows how important text comprehension is as a very basic learning goal.

Moving on to the book I want to tell you that it is divided into two parts. The first part is about the story of Monique who tells it as she herself experiences it, she has also edited the illustration, and the text is hers, she is an Italian writer who is deaf herself and in the second part she has created a peculiar vocabulary in which gives the interpretation of some basic words, important for deaf culture.

Small words, short sentences, short phrases, but each of them can create hours of conversation.'

Then audiologist Stamatia Staikoudi spoke: "My job is to help the deaf to have access to hearing through the hearing aids that exist, but what many people don't know is that a deaf person can wear hearing aids or a cochlear implant if they choose, but it's not that this electronic device it makes them like the listeners, they still fall short in many ways and it is our responsibility, because they are our fellow citizens and fellow human beings to help them communicate properly so that they too have access to all that we have access to. That is why it is very important that we are currently presenting a book that also exists in sign language. We must demand the same access for deaf children, to have properly staffed schools. If the educational and social system does not give the acceptance and access they need, we will never be able to be equal."

In the foreword of the book by Venetta Lambropoulou, Professor Emeritus of the University of Patras, Director-President of the National Foundation of the Deaf, we read characteristically: "The subject of the book, until now, is unknown to the majority of children, but also to adults, and is unusual and rather "unattractive" to the publishers our homes, since while in other countries we find a multitude of similar books in our country there is not a single children's book that refers in any way to deaf or hard of hearing children.

This initiative of Brainfood Publishing is therefore very important, because it opens up avenues for the enrichment of children's books with current topics, which present children with social realities and prepare them to live in today's multinational, multicultural and multilingual environments. It introduces children to universal values, such as acceptance, respect and the value of diversity, equality and the participation of all in social actions without prejudice, empathy and solidarity of people".

Discover more about it "I hear you"