Deaf Children Australia kicked off National Week of Deaf People (NWDP) celebrations with an exciting Auslan Storytime at the State Library of New South Wales. Todd McKenney, legendary Australian entertainer, and well-known supporter of the Deaf community, led an inclusive storytime alongside Deaf actor and influencer, David Grant.
This special storytime saw the launch of our latest Platypus Playhouse book ‘Pip and the Party’ where our adorable platypus, Pip, helps children learn all about feelings.
Todd McKenney has praised ‘Pip and the Party’ stating, “One of the great things about this book is not only the wonderful illustrations, but it’s also the illustrations of the signs up in the corner that go with the emotions and the feelings that we’re talking about in this story. So, for a family, it’s a great way for a whole family to start learning sign language and engaging with hard of hearing and deaf children from a very young age. And it’s fun.”
David Grant told us, “There wasn’t anything like this when I was growing up. It is great Deaf Children Australia is creating inclusive storytimes that deaf and hearing children can enjoy together. It is important deaf children feel included and they can with activities like this.”
Our Platypus Playhouse storybooks form part of our bilingual (Auslan and English), play-based set of resources to help deaf and hard of hearing children build language, connections, confidence and ignite creative play. Each storybook provides access to Auslan videos of keywords in the book together with a video of the entire book. For ‘Pip and the Party,’ Todd is the English narrator and David is the Auslan storyteller.
We have a series of Platypus Playhouse Auslan Storytime videos on our website that you can enjoy for free.
The storytime at State Library of New South Wales marks the first of what we hope will be many collaborations between Deaf Children Australia and libraries across Australia. The Head of Learning at the State Library of New South Wales, Pauline Fitzgerald, has stated,
“We are absolutely delighted to partner with Deaf Children Australia for this very special Auslan storytime. We’re all about books… and promoting the latest book in the Platypus Playhouse series, ‘Pip and the Party,’ is a great pleasure.”
If you missed out on the event, or if you want to watch it again, you can access our livestream video here:
We ran 10 Platypus Playhouse Auslan storytimes across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland during NWDP – all of which have been a great success in bringing all children together in a wonderfully inclusive environment.
To shop the Platypus Playhouse range head to our online shop
Contact us if you’d like a Platypus Playhouse Auslan Storytime at your local library or if you’d like your early learning centre to be involved: events@deafchildren.org.au
We’d love to hear from you!