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…
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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 educating children…
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A conference on The Future of Deaf Education in Ireland will take place at The Croke Park Conference Centre in Dublin, on March 4th. The conference will see the launch of a new policy document compiled by DeafHear.ie, The Catholic Institute of Deaf People and The Irish Deaf Society. This policy sets out a new future…
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Irish 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…
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A pilot scheme in the UK which aims to improve service co-ordination for children with deafness, is expected to be underway by early 2010. The Local Record of Deaf Children in the UK seeks to improve services and raise awareness of the numbers of young people living with hearing loss. Information will be shared by…
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Simply 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 babies and children from as young…
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Dance mats with flashing lights were previously used to teach deaf and hard of hearing kids to dance, but sub-woofers, as used at Rochester School for Deaf Students in the US, are definitely a step into the future. Sub-woofers are typically used to enhance music in a dancing environment, but in this case are placed…
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A parent recently asked IDK about Auditory Neuropathy (AN), after searching online for details about the condition. “Think about driving your car with the radio on, but you have a frayed wire somewhere between the radio and the speaker system. The sound is entering the perfectly operational radio but is not able to get through…
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In 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…
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Miriam Walsh, IDK´s journalist intern, recently met Emma Clarke, project officer of Trinity College Dublin´s Deaf Support at Third-Level (DS3) project to find out what supports students can use. Starting college is never easy. Sometimes none of your friends are at the same college and you may be far away from home. Being deaf or hard of…
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