An Inclusive Children's Story in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)

"Hi! We’re Jen and Kerrie!

We’re friends, we love books and we don’t have perfect hearing.

As mothers, and one of us a teacher, we’ve had the privilege of reading to children for a number of years. Not only is it a wonderful bonding experience, but it also creates a foundation for every child’s language development. However, as you might imagine, story time becomes a little different for families with members who are deaf, and we’d like that to change.

We were once deaf children who’ve now become parents, and we’ve always struggled to find books that recognise or engage children who use Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as their language. Based on our experiences growing up, we’ve written and are self-publishing the first of what will become (with your help!) a series of bilingual Auslan storybooks for families with deaf or hard of hearing members.

Our goal is to bridge the gap between the two languages and support the development of children’s language in the early years. It's also a fantastic introduction to the world of Auslan for both the hearing and deaf communities, and another big step in ensuring every child sees themselves represented in the wider world.

The pages are set up with pure Auslan images on one side, terrifically drawn up by our skilled and deaf illustrator, Shaun Fahey. The opposite page will display the story illustrations, wonderfully drawn by our U.K based illustrator, Janet King, with the English sentences underneath, making it truly bilingual. All our stories will include everyday vocabulary and expressions to support the language development of young children, and display common signs used every day.

Ultimately we’d love our books to spark a sense of pride in children and parents who are deaf, engage the children in story time, and allow them to bond with their parents as they explore the stories. It will make them ask questions, make predictions and take delight in seeing their families represented in these stories.  

Jump onto Chuffed today, and pre-order your copy of the first book .Thanks everyone for your support so far. We've reached half of our goal in just 2 days!  

Visit our Facebook page for updates and further information: //www.facebook.com/tallgiraffepublishing00/ . "

You can also find out more about Jen and Kerrie's amazing story on their campaign page: