Design of Educational Software to Integrate Kids with Hypoacusia in Preschool

This paper presents the design of Educational Software for children between the range of three to five years old studying the preschool level and who presents a problem of audition. Preschool children are taught through gaming and exploring mechanisms, for that reason this elements had been taken in consideration to make this software attractive to them. Individuals who are deaf require visual or signaling system in order to achieve the transmission and reception of ideas. Both mechanisms have been considered in the implementation through the use of graphics that let the student associate ideas with vocabulary, and the use of cued speech as the mechanism of communicating information. This software is not only for helping deaf children to learn about their environment, but also this tool will help with the integration with the rest of the classmates through the teaching of cued speech to both kind of students. Because the software implies pedagogical concepts an extended methodology for developing educational software has been followed, as result of this process is showed through a prototype. This product also had required the interaction between different experts in the fields of Informatics and Pedagogy in order to achieve the purposes of integrating the children to the community, fulfill educational needs, and assure the usability of the software.