About Us
Auslan for Families began in July 2020, contracting under Learning for Life therapy services in Dunsborough. Auslan for families was inspired due to an ever-increasing need for an Auslan teacher within our Southwest local area, which was unable to be serviced locally.
Auslan for Families offers an individualised, personable, and family centred Auslan learning program to support the Deaf or hard of hearing person and their family. The individuals and families that I work with are so unique, each coming in with their own areas of focus or priority, and thus the supports and interventions reflect this to support each family on their own unique journey. The Programs are tailored to reflect the family’s unique needs and wants, with personalised teachings across a variety of themes and areas.
Auslan for Families offers families the opportunity to learn Auslan within their home, school and community.
Encompassing all natural environments in an individualised and safe comfortable way. An important aspect of the program also includes the provision of cultural awareness training, an integral aspect in supporting the development and identity of the Deaf and hard of hearing community, to ensure that clients have more positive experiences with language and communication. I am very passionate about equipping my clients to engage confidently within the wider communities and, as such, bilingual and bicultural supports and family centred practice are at the heart of what Auslan for families achieves.
Sessions are approximately 1 hour and with a frequency suitable to each family. These sessions will be offered, ideally, within the home but with collaborations between the environments most significant in the client’s lives (i.e. day-care, community groups, school, universities etc).
Significant effort and support is undertaken to enable the individual to feel as comfortable in their own environment as humanly possible, even with a sensory loss. Whether that is undertaking group swimming lessons, horse riding, daily fitness at school, drama classes, surf lifesaving club or community sports. I have and will always aim to make my services of teaching a visual language in the environment that is most needed for the individual or family. As part of the Deaf awareness component of the Auslan for family’s service, varying options are offered to support the individual and family in their own natural and comfortable environment, expanding upon historical contexts, underpinnings and cultural etiquette. Auslan for families aims to assist the individual to feel as comfortable and confident in their own skin, overcome barriers, increase acceptance and understanding of their diagnosis, assist with the development of cultural identity and develop healthy sensory compensatory strategies that can be used in all environments.
In The Media
Brielle has been featured in a number of media articles and videos, as well as having written papers on her experiences. These, all in different ways show who Brielle is as a person and how she became who she is today. What her journey of hearing loss has been.
Hi, I'm Brielle, the Director of Auslan for Families.
I was born hearing, to hearing parents. Over my childhood I experienced significant hearing fluctuations due to conductive loss, however managed to meet and exceed developmental milestone with the support of over compensatory strategies.
During my teenage years I acquired a rapidly deteriorating hearing loss which resulted in a permanent, severe – profound bilateral mixed, sensorineural hearing loss with a conductive overlap.
During this transition from hearing to Deaf, I rapidly found ways to accept and embrace my diagnosis, adapt to my environment and obtain the necessary supports and strategies required to fulfill my natural born potential in a hearing world, whilst also beginning my bicultural identity within the Deaf community. Having experienced a hearing world and a Deaf world brings with it a unique outlook, knowledge, and perspective.
I am born to two hearing parents and I am now proud to be bicultural and bilingual.
I have found my greatest success and achievement of outcomes has arisen from using a combination of communication means, both verbal and visual in conjunction or isolation, dependent upon the environment I am surrounded by.
This bimodal communication approach enables me to understand and empathise with hearing parents of a Deaf child, identify alongside a Deaf child or adult, clearly, quickly and accurately pinpoint barriers that are being or potentially may be experienced, liase with educational staff to support the equal access of the curriculum, consult with allied therapists to provide unique understandings of the varying intricacies and subsequent functional impact that an individual with a hearing loss may experience and present with.
I culturally identify as Deaf and am an integral part of the Deaf communityin the south west region. This enables cultural acceptance and support for my teaching Auslan practices to others within the southwest.
Meet Our Director
