TOR--International Consultant for Child Sign Language Assessment

[Audrey Cooper]

Dear Colleagues,


World Concern-Vietnam is looking for an international consultant to create
a child sign language assessment tool for use by the organization and
Family Support Team workers providing sign language training and early
childhood education services to families with deaf children ages 0-6.
Please see TOR below.


Note that the application deadline is "ASAP." World Concern has been
seeking qualified applicants for more than a year to no avail, so they are
keeping the application deadline flexible until they fill the position. If
you or someone you know is a likely candidate, please do not hesitate to
contact me directly with any questions you might have (I am also a
consultant/trainer for the IDEO project).


Best wishes,

Audrey Cooper




*------ *

*The Intergenerational Deaf Education Outreach Project - IDEO*

*JSDF - TF 099058*





*TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)*

FOR INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT OF CHILD SIGN LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT





*I.               **BACKGROUND*

The Intergenerational Deaf Education Outreach Project is being implemented
by World Concern Development Organization in cooperation with the Ministry
of Education and Training (MOET) in the four provinces of Hanoi, Thai
Nguyen, Quang Binh and Ho Chi Minh City. The overall objectives of the
project is to assist young deaf children to integrate into mainstream
society, by piloting an innovative joint family and institution-based
delivery system comprising screening, family support, and preschool
services. This project is set to run until August 2015.



The project has three components of intervention:

(1)  Demonstrating (joint family-institution pre-school education for deaf
children, and essential knowledge base).

(2)  Developing professional human resources for pre-school deaf education.

(3)  Building capacity and partnerships for the deaf communities and
raising awareness for general public.



The international consultant for child sign language assessment is under
package # 2 in the Procurement Plan of Component 1: Demonstrating (Joint
family - institution pre-school education for deaf children and essential
knowledge base) which aims to create affordable ways of helping families
with a deaf child via Family Support Teams - FST (*deaf family
mentor/educator, sign language interpreter and hearing teacher of the deaf*)
placed in six existing child care centers or schools countrywide and
establish an essential knowledge base to support training, monitor the
efficacy of educational approaches for young deaf children, conduct
demonstration of program mechanisms and outcomes, and devise assessment
tools for language development of the child. This knowledge base will
provide information on preschool deaf education from local and global
sources within Vietnam, and also support the use of research-based
knowledge during decision-making processes about educational placement and
communication for deaf children.



The international consultant for child sign language assessment will create
assessment checklists and techniques (protocols) for the Family Support
Team (FST) to monitor and evaluate the *sign language development* of the
deaf children in IDEO project over the participating period of accessing
educational services that provided by FST at the demonstration centers as
well as at the house of deaf children.



*II.             **OBJECTIVE*

The international consultant is hired to *create the forms/tools to assess
child sign language development* of the deaf child from 0-6 years old
involved in the project. The assessment checklists and techniques will
allow the centers to determine the child's needs and how well the chosen
communicative approach is working for each child and their language
development over the participating period of accessing educational
services.



*III.           **SCOPE OF SERVICE AND OUTPUTS*

The consultant will:

1.     Work with Vietnam deaf institutions, schools, centers, and clubs to
collect/select relevant information/data on tools for assessing child
progress in learning/developing sign language for deaf children from 0-6
years old in particular (*Output 1**: Report of current/available tools)*

2.     Analyze, evaluate the data/information (*Output 2**: Analyzing &
Evaluation Report*)

3.     Base on the result of the research of SL and VNSL grammar (produced
by the SL & VNSL grammar consultant) and the analysis of collected
data/information; develop tools for assessing child progress in
learning/developing sign language for deaf children from 0-6 years old
involved in the project. (*Output 3**: The assessment checklists and
techniques)*

4.     Test these tools in IDEO project sites (*Output 4**: Field testing
report*)

5.     Adjust the tools according to the test results and comments from
IDEO Technical Working Group (*Output 5**: meeting report/result*)



*IV.           **DURATION/TIME FRAME*



   - Period of performance:  Sep. - Dec. 2013
   - The consultant will be responsible in following the estimated
   timelines and outputs. Estimated number of working days:  24



*Output*

*Scope of service (III)*

*#of working days*

Output 1

III. 1

04

Output 2

III. 2

06

Output 3

III. 3

08

Output 4

III. 4

03

Output 5

III. 5

03



*Total*

* 24*



 *V.             **QUALIFICATION AND COMPETENCIES*



   - An advanced university degree (M.A., PhD) in education, social
   sciences or a related discipline, with expertise in deaf education
   (preferably early child education), and area specialty in the Asia region;
   - Experience as an applied educational or social science researcher and
   as an education program evaluator with deaf people; having child sign
   language assessment experience is an advantage
   - High level of fluency in one or more natural sign languages
   - Substantial international experience in deaf education and deaf
   communities, preferably in developing countries;
   - Demonstrated capacity to organize and manage community-based
   consultation processes (e.g. workshops, focus groups, town-hall meetings,
   et cetera);
   - Demonstrated capacity to work effectively in a team, to manage a range
   of tasks, to work pro-actively and with diligence, and to manage resources
   effectively while meeting deadlines;
   - Excellent report writing skills in English.



*VI.           **CONTACT*



·      Interested qualify candidates are requested to send a letter of
application and their CV with details of qualifications, experience and
references via email ASAP to: IDEO at wcasia.org
·      Deadline for applications: ASAP
-- 
Audrey C. Cooper, PhD
MSW, MS, CI/CT

Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
American University

International Trainer
World Concern-Vietnam