LODE. A Web-based E-learning Tool for Deaf Children

Researches carried out on deaf subjects point out that deaf people achieve verbal language literacy with difficulty, as demonstrated by the many and common mistakes that could be found in their written productions. In this paper, we first overview several e-learning tools developed in Italy for teaching verbal Italian to deaf children. Then we present our preliminary proposal of a web-based interactive tool for Italian deaf children. The users of our tool are exclusively Italian children, with a scarce mastery of verbal Italian; in fact, deaf children are essentially visual learners, and a tutoring tool intended for them should take their specific needs and learning strategies into account. Our tool has also a specific focus: it aims at targeting comprehension issues, problematic for deaf children, related to global causal relations in narratives written in verbal Italian. Deaf children will learn through meaningful stories and interactive games, with the support of graphics and motivating feedback from the tool. Last but not least, web users will be invited to collaborate and exchange their productions in an interactive manner. Since deaf children are essentially visual learners, the tool will heavily rely on cartoons and videos as primary communication means