Enhancing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for Deaf Children and Their Families

Hearts & Hands aims to train parents and educators with the skills and tools needed to support the social-emotional development (SEL) and Theory of Mind (ToM) growth of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (D...

Hearts & Hands aims to train parents and educators with the skills and tools needed to support the social-emotional development (SEL) and Theory of Mind (ToM) growth of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) children. Through play therapy training, an interactive SEL toolkit and specialised educator training, the project will enhance parental confidence, improve emotional literacy in DHH children and create sustainable support structures that foster inclusion, resilience and self-advocacy.

Hearts & Hands will deliver training for parents in play therapy techniques, develop a bespoke SEL toolkit for parents to use at home, and we will deliver specialised training for adult educators in inclusive teaching and SEL methodologies. We will also deliver collaborative storytelling workshops that will engage parents and children in co-creating narratives, which will be professionally illustrated into comics, further encouraging self-expression, emotional literacy and family bonding.

The Hearts & Hands project will result in enhanced parental confidence in supporting DHH children's social-emotional learning (SEL), a structured SEL Toolkit with interactive resources and specialised training for adult educators in play therapy and inclusive teaching methodologies. The project will also produce collaborative storytelling workshops leading to illustrated comics, developing emotional literacy in DHH children, and stronger parent-child connections.