This 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? NOTE: Charlie was late detected at around age two, unlike today’s infants who benefit from
At the eighth annual Ireland’s eGovernment Awards ceremony in Dublin (February, 2010), IDK (Sound Advice) beat off stiff competition to win the Education category. The awards, presented in association with Eircom, aim to “raise awareness and recognise the innovators, developers, forward thinkers and experts who are pioneering the changes happening in how the Irish Government
At Griffith College, Cork, SMS texts are used to advise students of cancelled classes. Texting is a simple and often free method of communication that is available to anyone with a mobile phone. And these users range from young kids given phones by parents just in case of an emergency, to the elderly who may
Ireland’s government offers a free preschool year to all infants aged over three, regardless of additional needs they have. The Early Child Care & Education (ECCE) initiative, which is open to all preschools in Ireland, is profiled on Sound Advice. For children with deafness, creche and preschool is a pivotal stage in their spoken language development, with the foundations
A teacher recently asked IDK how to source a soundfield system for a child at their school. The system needed to be movable between classrooms. Our first response was to ask if the school has any contact with the Visiting Teacher service for deaf students at the Department of Education (DES). If yes, the visiting
TV3’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
Ann Heelan, executive director of AHEAD (Association for Higher Education Access and Disability), recently had an excellent piece in The Irish Times. A key point in the article states: ” Children with disabilities can learn as much as other children when given the right tools and the right learning environment. Technology can make a significant
IBM’s KidSmart program was recently displayed at the Young Scientists’ Exhibition in the RDS. This program aims to integrate interactive teaching and learning activities into pre-schools and is aimed at 3-7 year olds. The program is currently used with over 2 million children in 60 countries. The focus is on underprivileged areas as well as
A conference on The Future of Deaf Education in Ireland took place at The Croke Park Conference Centre in Dublin, on March 4th, 2010. The conference saw the launch of a new policy document compiled by DeafHear.ie, The Catholic Institute of Deaf People and the IDS that aimed to set out a new future for