PSP helps deaf kids in school

They’re always more than just gaming platforms. The PlayStation Portable once again finds another practical, not to mention very useful, function using its multimedia capabilities. Believe it or not, these kids rely on the Sony handheld to help them get better at sign language.

Each deaf kid in Longwill primary in Birmingham now has a PSP, not because Longwill is a hardcore gaming school, but because the PlayStation handheld from Sony helps them improve their sign language.

Deputy headteacher Alison Carter says that the PlayStation Portable is the ideal machine for the school’s deaf children. It’s the combination of the handheld’s multimedia capabilities, plus the appeal of using a gaming platform for schoolwork. Using a plugin camera, they capture BSL (British Sign Language), the school’s main language, and use the vids and images to review vocabulary and the corresponding symbols. Alison recognizes the PSP’s role in learning.

We had kids where their written work wasn’t as good as their signing. They improved by signing their stories to the camera, taking the PSP back to their desk and trying to translate what they had said in BSL into written English, which is their second language. That’s been very successful.

The school is also incorporating the idea into creating a library of bedtime stories, which are signed and spoken into PSPs. Using this library, kids can take bedtime stories home, where parents can give them a bedtime story every night.

With that much exposure to PSPs at such a young age, I won’t be surprised if some of them start whipping up some homebrew by the time they’re 13. Who knows? Maybe they can add apps and features to the PSP for the deaf as well.

Via Guardian