An East Belfast primary school developed a special BSL Advent Calender this year in order to help their pupils understand some Christmas themed sign language.
Cregagh Primary School has had a Deaf Unit in its premises for over 30 years and is the only school in Belfast that is able to offer a high level of support to deaf pupils in a mainstream setting.
It is run by the school's Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People, Karen Pearson, who teaches P5 to P7, and Margaret-Anne Christie, who teaches P1 to P4, with 13 children currently using the unit in order to help them with their studies.
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The unit also has a number of specialised classroom assistants who are able to help the pupils during their mainstream studies.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Margaret-Anne Christie said: "The Deaf Unit has been operating here for over 30 years and has become a firm fixture at Cregagh Primary School ever since.
"All of our pupils will have had deaf friends here since they have started and it is something that everyone sees as a completely normal part of the school and we try to give as many pupils an experience of it where possible, through either being invited to the unit by a friend or going into the classes to help teach the children sign language they are able to use.
"Every year we usually have two to three new deaf students joining us from nursery and we are very proud of the work that each of them do and the confidence they gain from it.
"Our pupils are taught the main curriculum areas in the Unit and integrate with their mainstream peers for play and subjects like PE and Art.
"It also allows us to help them work on their communication skills and vocabulary, as one of the biggest challenges we see with our deaf pupils is langauge deprivation, where they will have fewer words they understand compared to those children who are not deaf. This is due to a variety of reasons outside of their control such as delays in diagnosis, hearing aids and implants."
As a way to help their friends in the school understand sign language better, the children who use the Deaf Unit have taken part in a special BSL advent calender this year, where they went into classes and taught the pupils a new Christmas themed word everyday.
Ms Christie continued: "Over the course of this year we have been looking at ways to incorporate the deaf unit in with the mainstream classes more and more, and have begun teaching words that are connected to the subjects that we are learning about.
"During the run-up to Christmas we did the same with the BSL Advent Calender, which has seen our young ones teach their friends different signs for words that are based around Christmas, such as Santa and reindeer.
"For the first time ever our pupils also signed along to their parts in our Christmas nativity play and the confidence that this has given our pupils in the unit has been absolutely wonderful to see and we are so proud of everything that they have been doing."
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