This workshop aims to engage the teenagers in the day’s learning through active participation, to involve them as fully as possible.

A mix of deaf and hearing speakers will teach on the day, with vetted volunteers providing interpersonal back-up to the captioners & interpreters.

For more details, please email info<at>irishdeafkids.ie, post your questions as a comment to this page, or post to IDK’s Facebook group Wall.

This workshop is free-of-charge to teen participants, thanks to IDK’s win in a competition held by 3 Mobile and the Sunday Business Post, in April 2010.

Many colleges provide services for deaf students to have written work edited and proof-read before deadlines, especially if ISL is their first language.

IDK is uniquely positioned to provide this editing and proof-reading service to complement its current services and fund new projects. Crucially, the IDK team has personal experience of hearing issues, plus tertiary qualifications and experience in publishing, editing and proof-reading. Their skills include:

• Editing
• Proof-reading
• Writing to commission (print and online)
• Email newsletters and e-zine writing
• Print newsletter writing
• Rewriting for print & the web
• Synopsis production
• Points annotation

IDK has recently undertaken the following work:

1. Production of an online postgraduate, distance-learning course (research, writing to specification, editing and proof-reading).
2. Editing and proof-reading of essays, dissertations and theses.

Please email info<at>irishdeafkids.ie for full details of this service.

Bernadette, a primary school teacher in Co. Laois, has supported IDK in recent months due to understanding the unique challenges experienced in Ireland by families with deaf children. Her older sister Loretta, who was deaf, passed away at the age of 12, when Ber herself was 7 years old.

The IDK team wishes Ber the very best as she juggles teaching and study with being the Laois Rose! Read more in the Midland Tribune newspaper …

One year ago, IDK noted how web technologies make story-telling inclusive for deaf and hearing children who may be in the same classroom. When e-books merge audio, text and animation options, child literacy improves, as demonstrated in the UK’s Signed Stories project to support social inclusion.

Some obvious benefits of digital readers and e-books for children:

• A wide range of books are available for kids with different needs
• Accessible, picture-based e-books develop a child’s imagination.
• Interactive books engage children and make learning fun.
• First ABCs and words can be taught as a family is on the move.
• Sign language may be easier to link to print letters in an e-book.
• E-books hold many books on one device and are lighter than paper.
• Younger children learn new words and extend their vocabulary.
• Older children learn to construct sentences and stories by reading.

Several different types of e-readers are available with uses. Here are some top-selling e-books that are available for most popular eReaders.

1. Dora the Explorer. These e-books read a story while highlighting the text being said. This supports word association for children, who can colour in characters, between chapters to consolidate learning.
2. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Today’s kids enjoy these stories. The ebook has favorites by Oscar Wilde, like The Selfish Giant.
3. The Harry Potter books. These are for older children and words can be highlighted. The e-book allows children to choose where the story should go by giving them different places to go or spells to cast.

Digital readers and e-books are the future for education and many countries are phasing in digital media to national education systems. In June 2009, the state of California proposed a plan to increase digital media use in education, starting with maths and science subjects. In the last college year Hackney City Academy in the UK also offered digital textbooks to students.

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Further Reading:

Literacy For Deaf Children

Reading & Language Development in Deaf Children

Early-Education To Be Revolutionised By SmartPhone Devices

Young Readers Learn From DVDs & Touch-Phones

Using Software Tools To Teach Deaf Children

RFID Technology Teaches Deaf Children Language

Hidden Hearing will fit IDK’s “kids” with new earmoulds at a 20% discount on the €50 price. Please contact your nearest branch for an appointment.

Earmoulds fit in the ear, as part of a hearing-aid. If a child’s moulds don’t fit tightly, their aid/s whistle with feedback. Loose moulds spoil a child’s ability to hear with aids, especially if aids are turned down to cut ensuing feedback.

Badly-fitting ear-moulds are a double-whammy for a child with hearing-aids, and a very young child may need new moulds monthly, as they grow.

We are very grateful to Hidden Hearing for giving IDK’s “kids” this option in light of HSE delays, and look forward to positive “feedback” (pun intended).

Further Reading

One Parent’s Feedback: National Audiology Review

Hearing-Aids + Learning = Education

Ai Media was formed in 2003 and has since dedicated itself to providing generic captioning services. In Australia about 85% of deaf children attend mainstream schools and last year AI Media began captioning in schools.

Teachers are already seeing results. Students with captioning are more engaged in class, have better concentration and are included in all lessons. They are part of the class and not isolated in a corner with an interpreter.

Support teacher Sally Pape talks about one of her year 9 students, “She did all her homework, all her assignments, and she went from the bottom of the class to coming first in the yearly exam. It was a huge change”.

For the first time, a teacher knows a student is fully understanding the topic in progress and can get feedback and communicate with the students.

This solution is not just for schools: It supports life-long learning and can be used in colleges and workplaces so the long-term social benefits are clear.

Parents anticipate a different, better future for their children. Parent Alex Jones says, “[with this captioning] there will be roads, avenues and doors opened for my son, not only for his future, but for the future of his friends who are deaf also. They will all have value and benefit.”

Similarly, Tony Abrahams, CEO at AI Media says, “It’s a solution that is tested, is reliable and is scalable. And it means that going forward, no deaf kid needs to be left behind and no-one needs to be out of work just because they can’t hear. And that’s really what Ai-Live means, and it’s exciting.”

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Further Reading

Video of Ai-Live captioning solution

Visit the Ai-Media website

Australia’s First Model Classroom For Deaf Pupils

Tutorial Captioning Benefits Deaf Students’ Access

Real-Time Captioning At School Via Mobile Phone

1. hearing-aids from as young as possible (even under 1 year old), and
2. early intervention for children with severe to profound deafness

Newcomers to deafness may ask, what is the link with hearing-aids, learning & education? The answer is easy. Hearing-aids + learning = education.

The article, Children Waiting Over Two Years For Hearing-Aids (Examiner, Aug. 3, 2010) outlines the unbelievable failings of state audiology services.

Very young children need hearing-aids to hear sounds in their environment: namely their families’ voices, household noises and traffic sounds for safety.

When a young child receives sounds via hearing-aids, their brain learns to recognise and make sense of sounds around them. This way, the child is best-placed for early language learning at home, before preschool starts.

Children learn 75% of their total knowledge in their first four years of life. Deaf infants and children deserve hearing-aids at this stage. Otherwise, their language learning (and formal education) is delayed from the start.

A deaf child with language, going into preschool and primary school, has the best chance of peer-level attainment. Giving these children a solid start in life benefits the education system in terms of assigning teaching support. The maths is simple. Investment into a deaf child’s early years, will pay off.

For deaf children to get this start, the state needs to provide:

1. Universal new born hearing screening (UNHS)
2. Early intervention when deafness is confirmed
3. A formal support system for families with deaf children

These three things will make a world of difference to a child and their family.

Further Reading:

Early action key to infant hearing loss

One Parent’s Feedback: National Audiology Review

National Audiology Review: Another Mum’s Story

Including Deaf Children At Preschool: Part One

Schools ‘Must Change Their Attitude To Disability’

Inclusive Education Is ‘All-Encompassing’ Learning