Including Deaf Children At Preschool - Part Two
Thursday, February 25th, 2010This post continues the piece, Including Deaf Children At Preschool (Part One). A key question was put to the mum & creche manager:
How did you identify the potential challenges you (mum & creche) might meet during Charlie’s early days there?
(The Mum)
Once Charlie’s deafness was confirmed, we understood that communication methods had to be adjusted. He [...]
Including Deaf Children At Preschool - Part One
Monday, February 15th, 2010This spring, the Irish government rolls out its free preschool year for all children born between February 2, 2005 to June 30, 2006 (with exemptions for children with special needs). The Early Child Care & Education (ECCE) initiative, which is open to all preschools in Ireland, is profiled on IDK.
IDK will this week [...]
IDK & Special Stories on TV3’s Ireland:AM Show
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010TV3’s Ireland:AM team invited Caroline Carswell from IDK, and Kate Gaynor from Special Stories, into the studio to talk about their “Birthday For Ben” book after Special Stories received a Moonbeam award in the US during late 2009. The video clip of the interview is online at the TV3 website.
Subtitled video clips are also available [...]
‘Experience’ Books From Off We Go! Publishing
Monday, January 18th, 2010Irish company, Off We Go! Publishing, has released a set of books for children to learn about different first-time experiences in early life.
These books benefit those with special needs and any young child experiencing these outings for the first time.
Twelve different titles are in the series, including “Going on a Plane’, “Going to the Optician” [...]
New Simply Signing Initiative For Parents/Teachers
Monday, January 4th, 2010Simply Signing is inviting members to join its new “Now I Can Sign Programme” (NICSP), which is geared to parents and teachers.
The NICSP gives the skills to learn basic vocabulary in Irish sign language (ISL) such as “more” and “all gone”. These signs can be easily introduced to all babies and children from as young [...]
Special Stories Wins A Silver In Moonbeam Awards
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Special Stories Publishers, whose Series 2 includes the IDK childrens’ book, “A Birthday For Ben“, won a silver medal in the 2009 Moonbeam Awards.
The international Moonbeam awards seek to acknowledge that “children’s book authors and publishers are creating books that not only celebrate the joys of childhood, but help kids and families deal with its [...]
Talking Your Way Into A Relevant Graduate Job
Sunday, December 13th, 2009A recent experience reminded me of a piece written for Get Ahead’s blog in December 2008. It’s posted here for your reference.
“Sorting post in the mailroom of a large UK publishing house wasn’t what I went to university for. Admittedly the job was in the right field – publishing – the subject of my post-graduate [...]
Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) Scheme
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009In Ireland, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) free pre-school year is set to open up equal education opportunities to children nationwide.
The scheme, which is to be rolled out from January 2010, will be available to all pre-schoolers in Ireland, born between 2 February 2005 to 30 June 2006 (exemptions are made for children [...]
December 5th Creative Play Sessions - UPDATE
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Update: Owing to the volume of seasonal festivities on Saturday, December 5th, IDK and Helium are postponing the sessions until late January. We apologise for any inconvenience.
On December 5 2009, IDK and Helium will host another Learning Language is Fun! creative play session at the RuaRed arts centre in Tallaght, Dublin. Helium artist, Margot Jones, [...]
Computers Learn To Identify Signs In TV Footage
Monday, October 26th, 2009Three PhD candidates in the Netherlands have spent the last few years developing technology to recognise sign language in real-time.
One researcher, Jeroen Arendsen, said, “Very little is known about the perception of sign language. The aim of this research was to expand our knowledge of human observation of signing. For instance, it turns out that [...]