This Forum would be for all parents of D/deaf and hard of hearing children and young adults, in special schools and mainstream; who use ISL and/or oral language; with and without implants.

All parents of D/deaf and hard of hearing children from around the country are invited to an information session on Saturday 22 May 2010 from 11am till 3.30pm, in The Aisling Hotel, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8.

‘Looking Forward’ is the theme of the day. People are encouraged to drop in to give their views and ideas on what they want in forming this group.

The CIDP, IDS and DeafHear will each give a short presentation on their organisations and how they can support the Parents’ Forum.

This free event includes lunch. Booking forms must be returned by May 17, 2010. This gathering is sponsored by the Catholic Institute for Deaf People.

Further Reading

Deaf Education Conference - March 4, 2010

Summary of Deaf Education Conference, 4/3/2010

Content for primary & secondary teachers at mainstream schools in Ireland will be presented by guest speaker, Dr. Connie Mayer, Associate Professor EdD, York University, Toronto, Canada.

• Listen to Dr Mayer speaking at an event in Manchester, UK (2009)

Seminar applications are invited from learning support/resource and class teachers at schools that have pupil(s) who are deaf or hard of hearing, to a maximum of 2 per school. An application form [MS Word] is available online.

Date and Venue of Seminars (all 9.15am to 3.30pm):

1. May 18th: Navan – Ardboyne Hotel, Dublin Road, Navan
2. May 20th: Limerick – Greenhills Hotel, Ennis Road, Limerick
3. May 21st: Cork – Oriel House Hotel, Ballincollig, Cork

Please complete the application form and return by post to:
Special Education Support Service (SESS), Cork Education Support Centre, The Rectory, Western Road, Cork on or before May 11th.

A ‘taster’ session will be held on Sunday, June 20, at 10.30am in Dun Laoghaire Marina, after which interested kids can enroll for five Sundays of sailing from June 27, 2010. No prior experience is necessary.

For further details, contact:

Alison Ryan, Support Officer, Disability Federation of Ireland, 101 North Main Street, Cork. Tel: 021 4271752 or text: 086 3816323.
Email: a.ryan<at>disability-federation.ie or visit www.disability-federation.ie

Supported by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, National Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club, Irish Sailing Association, Irish Disabled Sailing Association, Dun Laoghaire Marina & Dublin Port Company.

Further Reading

Parent Question: Independence For A Deaf Child

Cinematic Life Lessons

Emergent literacy theorists believe that children start learning about literacy (reading and writing) from birth. Infants can learn about the letters of the alphabet and concepts of print long before they are able to read.

Think about your child for a minute. If you hand them a book, do they hold it right side up? Can they point to the title? Turn the pages in the right order? Although they can’t read, they learn that print on pages has meaning.

If you take time to introduce young kids to letters and pictures, the benefits last. Early learning is the responsibility of parents and not a school-teacher.

While bringing literacy benefits. early learning helps a child’s concentration, communication skills, speech, language and general attention span.

Just a few points to remember:

1. Always pick a time that suits you. Don’t try reading while dinner is on, or you’re heading out the door to work
2. Take time to be with your child. Do not rush through a book, give the child time to look at pictures and tun the pages
3. Make reading fun. You don’t want kids to get bored of learning at such a young age. Put some drama into the reading & use hand movements

A few items to help you along the way:

1. Try to get picture cards for your child. They can play with these when you’re not around and it familiarises them with new pictures and colors
2. Never underestimate fridge magnets. It is easy to find alphabet or number-shaped magnets and children have a lot of fun moving these about on a fridge door while learning the shapes of different letters
3. When choosing books it can be difficult to know what to pick. Books with lots of repetition are good. They may seem boring to you but children learn best when they repeatedly see the words and pictures

The bottom line is, the more stories you share with your child, the more words they will learn - and the better prepared for school they will be.

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Further Reading

Deaf Children - Early Language Teaching At Home

Communication Development - Linking Items To Words

Early Reading Skills For Lifelong Literacy

Introducing Babies & Toddlers To Books And Reading

Visual Learning In The Preschool & Primary Years (pdf file)

Including Deaf Children At Preschool - Part One (plus links)

IBM’s KidSmart PC Supports Language Learning (plus brochure)

An article, “How Smartphones and Handheld Devices Are Bringing On An Educational Revolution” outlines the educational potential of handheld devices to revolutionise early-years teaching (FastCompany, April 2010). The potential for inclusive education and differentiated teaching is huge.

Points of note:

1. Early literacy is supported with the First Words iPhone application
2. The TeacherMate handheld was devised by a social entrepreneur
3. Two-way mobile phones will be iPhone/iPad-like in the near future

Further Reading

How iPhones can revolutionise reading for people with dyslexia

Real-Time Captioning At School Via Mobile Phone

After the show, the lead judge said: “We shouldn’t even mention the fact he has a hearing disability. The guy can dance.” Rajibal’s plans to invest his winnings (USD 33,000) into opening a dance school for deaf students.

Ultimately, children who’re deaf or hard-of-hearing can learn to dance with the benefit of new web technologies and systems.

Deaf or hard of hearing kids can access web systems with live captioning or sign language. Learning to dance can open up opportunities in life to have fun, keep fit, to get a college scholarship, or enter a talent competition.

Students at Northern Elementary School in Minnesota are among the first to use these web systems. The distance-learning classes are taught by varied dance instructors who teach everything from African dance to hip hop.

All that’s needed is a large screen to project images and two-way webcams. This means dance teachers can teach moves from anywhere in the world for broadcast to a small class group, or even many school groups at a time.

In this school, the images are projected onto a screen in the gymnasium through video-conferencing technology. The classes are free for schools and taught through the Minnesota Schubert Centre.

The classes are taught in real-time so the teacher can stop for a break if required, or comment on the childrens’ performance.  “It’s neat because even though the instructor is on a big white screen, he can say to the kids, ‘Hey, you, in front wearing purple,” said instructor Sherry Holloway.

The kids enjoy their fun, and the technology is not only limited to dance. In the classroom, it can be used for subjects such as geography, maths and history, maybe by video-conferencing with classrooms in schools overseas.

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Further Reading

Low-Cost Internet Video Streaming For Educators

Subwoofers Give Access To Dance, Art & PC Games

“Through Sophie’s Eyes” - Deaf Children Do Dance

Digital Media Content Accessibility For Deaf Students

Web Technologies Make Storytelling Inclusive

AD: Anna Daly (LifeFM) and MW: Miriam Walsh (IDK)

AD: I suppose with The Arts Council and looking for space I know one of the issues at this conference was the fact that budding artists, musicians, sculptors…. need a place to work and practice and hone their skills.

MW: Yes, it’s really expensive for any young person to afford their own space. So what we are looking for is to be given these spaces and have mentors (on-site) like in music, instead of renting space which is too expensive for any young person to do. Or to have a space if you are an artist to show your work or if you are into film to have it as a film set.

AD: I know the whole area of arts and funding we always hear about the top rung of society and about this whole tax incentive and it always seems to be the very rich that get targeted and say well, why are they paying the tax? But there are a whole lot of other people underneath that top ladder of the rung and I suppose as a parent, if one of my children turned around and said they wanted to be an artist or a sculptor or a musician, my big concern would be, well, how are you going to feed and clothe yourself, you know, the whole area of wow, you may not be able to survive financially.

MW: Well, at the moment there is no good job to be in and you can’t really say there is an area you should go into. So… if you go to your guidance counsellor in school, and say you want to be an artist they are going to say “no, be a doctor, be a lawyer,  be a teacher”. But they are not going to say be an artist or a musician, they are going to say do that outside work but just don’t go and do anything towards the arts. So we are trying to change the stigma towards being an artist as well. Like, personally as someone who studied journalism it was one of those areas where it is hard to get work but if it’s what you want to do, you should do it.

AD: And talking about the arts and how it may work in other countries, have we been looking at the models in the US, in France … in continental Europe how do people get into the arts and how do they survive the beginning of those hard years?

MW: Well, for us what we are looking at now for the next meeting is to get different models from other countries and see how it works there. Youth arts gets under 5% of the Arts Council funding and it can’t be that way everywhere so we are going to see what we can learn to change the way things are in this country.

AD: And just looking backat the whole area of these empty or derelict buildings. How exactly could that help?

MW: Well, if you have no space and if you want to be a musician, what are you going to do?  Not everybody has the money to rent a space, so what we are planning to do is to try and get some of these buildings to showcase your art or to just play music with your friends so that you can still be involved in the arts. And have full access to space - we want to make use of these buildings. They will just be derelict, decreasing in value otherwise and this is a way they could be used.

AD: And exactly what kind of a relationship does The Arts Council have with the government at the moment - have there been any discussions towards this so far?

MW: Hmm… not as far as I know. At the conference it was between the young people and The Arts Council but there were also policy makers from different organisations. The IFI (Irish Film Institute), from RTE, from The Ark (a children’s centre in Temple Bar that supports the arts) and we are trying to work with the policy makers and with The Arts Council to get the space.

AD: I suppose taking a look again at the arts in Ireland there are a lot of talented people here who may not get the chance to progress in the area that they want to work in but we can see just alone from say the Oscar nominations, there is an incredible amount of talent in Ireland that really needs to be showcased.

MW: Exactly. Like I was in the film group for the weekend and two of the people mentoring our group were two young guys who at the ages of 10 and 15 were given a camera. They lived in Fatima Mansions in Dublin that were being demolished so they filmed the whole process to how it was when they built the new houses. These people were really young 10 and 15 at the time and they won an IFTA award for their work. So it proves that if you have the equipment you can do whatever you want, and there is a lot of potential.

AD: The IFTA’s are the Irish Film and Television Awards?

MW: Yes. Exactly.

AD: And I suppose looking back to these derelict buildings what would The Arts Council envision them to be?

MW: They want them to be centres where young people can gather and be creative and use them. Like there is a place in Temple Bar called Exchange where young people can gather and play music. One of the groups at the weekend was a music group. They never met each other before but went into Exchange Dublin and recorded a piece from what they learnt within two days.

AD: And I know here in Cork there is a very vibrant arts community and there is a lot happening particularly if you look around Shandon, the Firkin Crane… that whole area seem to be developing as an arts quarter.

MW: Yes, a lot of talent is out there - we are trying to get that talent together and get the space for people to develop. Even if people want to hang out with their friends and play music that’s fine, but there is a lot of talent out there that could become something more for the country. We could have more Oscar nominees, we could have musicians - we just need the chance.

AD: See, the thing that you mentioned, there could be a concern for many people that young people are just gathering together to hang out and play music that’s not really…that’s…that’s going to be supervised.

MW: Yes, it’s going to be supervised. Like we are not going to have people there saying “you can do this, you can’t do that” but our plan is to get mentors in. People who have been there, people who had situations where they weren’t given a chance…they might be in bands now, they could be artists now… someone to be there for the young people to look up to, and so it can be monitored because we obviously don’t want the buildings to get wrecked and we want to prove we do need the buildings so it will be closely monitored.

AD: Are you optimistic?

MW: After the weekend, yes. The young people, there was 60 of us and while there was a timetable, when people went away at night we spent hours talking about it, so we actually wanted to be there, and another meeting of young people is on 8th May in Exchange Dublin and anyone can attend or give their input.

AD: Now the beginning with these forums is to see exactly what can be done and what The Arts Council would like to see done, but do you think it’s realistic some of these buildings could be handed to The Arts Council?

MW: It won’t be an easy process but we hope it will be possible. One area we looked at is Smithfield (in Dublin), with empty retail outlets sitting there. They are not going to be used and we need areas like that, that can be handed over through NAMA and what else is going to be done? Like there is talk about affordable housing, but realistically what is going to happen? There are over 300,000 abandoned houses at the moment so we are trying to offer an alternative.

AD: And again just talking about the Future Arts forum. There is another one coming up in May and again what is the idea of that one. Is it similar to the last forum in March?

MW: The last forum was on The Arts Council’s grounds. They supervised and were telling us what to do. So when we meet in Exchange on 8th of May it will be on our grounds and they will attend, with some policymakers. We want to have our say and discuss our work since the last gathering.

AD: So what are you looking for people to do? You want people to come along if they are interested?

MW: If you are interested come along or visit the website Futurearts.ie - there is a live forum for people to login and give their own input.

AD: Again that website?

MW: Futurearts.ie

AD: Do you want to give us the dates of the upcoming FutureArts forum?

MW: On May 8th in Exchange Dublin which is in Temple Bar. It’s a Saturday at 12pm and young artists are invited to come along.

Further Reading

Arts Council Invites IDK To Future Arts Conference

Future Arts 2010: FYI - Accessibility and Advocacy

Subwoofers Give Access To Dance, Art, PC Games

Irish Deaf Kids is delighted to advise that its pitch won the competition.

This funding will be invested in a project for which IDK has sought capital in recent months. We are delighted that - at last - the project can start rolling.

Kudos also to the 3 Mobile team, who quickly realised text messaging is best for all communication, and confirmed the good news in this way.

In the classroom, audio output from the computer is sent via radio waves, directly to receivers the students wear on their hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. Ambient noise is limited for the children to hear more clearly.

The technology gives students new opportunities as they benefit from hearing a computer’s audio output, unlike the past focus on visual teaching.

Paige DeWitt, Principal of the school has already seen the benefits.

“All kids like technology. It’s their world now. This has involved them more in technology. When you watch them, their faces light up. They squeal,” DeWitt said. “They can hear the sounds. It helps them learn more of the phonetic base of the language in a way they have fun doing.”

Computers provide endless opportunities for deaf/hard of hearing students.

One example is the iCommunicator software, which promotes independent communication and  increases literacy by ‘translating’ English in real-time.

Through the iCommunicator, speech can be translated to text, speech/text to video sign-language and speech/text to a computer-generated voice. Students have access to efficient, effective communication and equally, can access audio information. Language and reading skills also improve visibly.

The ABC software company offers a range of material to improve literacy and speech levels in children. The programmes operate via cued speech and give visual access to the sounds of spoken language.

Each ABC programme covers different subjects from animals to colours and more. The modular programmes teach through games and offer progress tests at each level for students aged 7-16 years old.

Further Reading

Using Software Tools To Teach Deaf Children

IBM’s KidSmart PC Supports Language Teaching

Schools ‘Must Change Their Attitude To Disability’

Computers Learn To Identify Signs In TV Footage

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Would you consider deafness in any way to have influenced the telephone, Internet and SMS texting as everyday tools for communication? Most people would not - but deafness is the universal link.

Let’s start with the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the US in the 1870s. Bell’s mother had progressive deafness and this led him to study acoustics. Bell’s father worked to teach deaf people to speak. In their youth, Bell & his brothers learned to write visible speech (symbols showing lip movements to sounds) and to match symbols to their correlating sound.

As an adult, Bell studied sound and its creation. He used the telegraph as a basis for inventing the telephone. On October 9, 1876 the first phone conversation took place between Bell and Thomas A. Watson. A year later Bell Telephone Company was created and by 1886, over 150,000 people in the US had telephones (remember, the Internet runs over phone lines).

Next, the Internet. Vinton Cerf, Google’s chief evangelist, was central to creating the early Internet. Cerf is hard of hearing and in the 1970s was part of an initial research team into internet protocols under Steve Crocker. Cerf’s hearing issues meant he needed to share documents with associates instead of talking on a phone. The first IP-based network resulted in 1981.

Only since the early 1990s has the Internet been a portal for communication & social networking, with Facebook recently passing Google as a destination.

Finally, SMS texting. Finland’s Matti Makonen is credited with inventing SMS texting. The first SMS was sent in 1992. The idea of SMS was first discussed by Makkonen in a Copenhagen pizzeria with two other Finns, Seppo Tiainen and Juhani Tapiol.  Makkonen invented SMS texting for deaf people to communicate, but when SMS offered an incredible new method for saving telecom bandwidth, the world of cellular telecommunications changed.