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From https://hechingerreport.org/a-bilingual-app-with-sign-language-brings-more-stories-to-deaf-children/

A bilingual app with sign language brings more stories to deaf children
And building literacy skills is only the beginning
by TARA GARCÍA MATHEWSON
September 27, 2018

Story time is a classic part of the school day for the nation’s youngest learners. Before they can read, preschoolers and early elementary school students sit with teachers and watch and listen as stories are narrated to them. Besides learning new vocabulary words and starting to connect written and spoken language, they learn to love stories and build a foundation for reading that can serve them for the rest of their lives.

Melissa Malzkuhn has developed a new way for deaf children to get the same benefits of story time through an app. Malzkuhn is the founder and creative director of the Motion Light Lab in the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The VL2 Storybook Apps, available as individual books in the Apple app store, bring together English and American Sign Language so young children can connect the two languages.
 
Children (or those reading with them) can choose to take in the story in one of two modes – watch or read. “Watch” mode features the narrator telling the story in American Sign Language. The goal, Malzkuhn said, is strictly to give deaf children the chance to understand a story and enjoy it in their native language. “Read” mode looks like any other children’s book, with English words on a page. Children can swipe to go from one page to another, but, uniquely, vocabulary words are bolded on each page so if children don’t understand them, they can tap them to open a video in which a narrator will offer the ASL sign for the word as well as the finger-spelled version (letter by letter).

“Read” mode builds up children’s English vocabulary so they can access traditional books, too. Once kids know how to read in English, Malzkuhn says, they can go the library and pick out any book they want.

Read the full article at https://hechingerreport.org/a-bilingual-app-with-sign-language-brings-more-stories-to-deaf-children/
Learn more about the app at http://vl2storybookapps.com/