Oskar Schindler’s Communicative Approach for Deaf Children
Maria Cristina Caselli, Virginia Volterra
This short paper intends to remember the vision of Oskar Schindler about infant deafness and the education of deaf children and adolescents. We are reviewing the history of the relations between him and the group of speech therapists trained by him and the research group of the Institute of Psychology CNR (today Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies – ISTC). We are highlighting how our scientific topics and our educational and rehabilitation approaches, were often interwoven and how both groups have always supported the use of multiple languages (spoken and written Italian and Italian Sign Language) and of multiple modalities (gestural and vocal) in order to promote a higher communicative competence, a better linguistic development and a harmonic growth of the deaf children.
Keywords
Deaf children, Communication, Gestures, Sign language, Educational approaches.