The Community Council for Berkshire (CCB) has linked up with Reading Deaf Centre and Reading Deaf Children's Society to offer the only free sign language course in the Reading area.

The 10-week introductory training programme is aimed at parents and relatives of hearing-impaired children who would otherwise have to pay for a college course.

Liz Slocome, whose three-year-old son Alistair lost his hearing after contracting meningitis, welcomes the new course. She says: "For those of us who need to sign to a child it is a basic requirement, but parents have to pay hundreds of pounds for the basic right to communicate with their child."

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