CI's and the NAD convention

neecy

neecy

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I was reading the NAD blog about the convention, by Jared Evans and Shane Feldman and was surprised to see that among all the different companies that were being represented at the convention, there was a table/booth by Cochlear! Jared mentioned that the new Freedom and its "water resistant" properties.

Its nice to see that they were put in a positive light - and the fact that they were represented at a national convention for the Deaf perhaps shows that attitudes are ajusting. We can hope!!!!
 
That's not an entirely new thing, actually. In 2002 the convention was held at Gallaudet, and I remember them having a booth as well. Couldn't tell you which company it was, but they were there.

It is nice to see things changing, and people becoming more open-minded.
 
neecy said:
I was reading the NAD blog about the convention, by Jared Evans and Shane Feldman and was surprised to see that among all the different companies that were being represented at the convention, there was a table by Cochlear! Jared mentioned that the new Freedom and its "water resistant" properties.

Its nice to see that they were put in a positive light - and the fact that they were represented at a national convention for the Deaf perhaps shows that attitudes are ajusting. We can hope!!!!
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I'm surprised.
 
ayala920 said:
That's not an entirely new thing, actually. In 2002 the convention was held at Gallaudet, and I remember them having a booth as well. Couldn't tell you which company it was, but they were there.

It is nice to see things changing, and people becoming more open-minded.
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I've never been to one, so I didn't know that (about them having a booth in 2002 as well) but I still think its a great step!!!
 
Cool! are you saying AB and Med-EL was there also?

and where's this blog? thanks in advance
 
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Boult said:
Thanks I was trying to find it on NAD website so that's why I asked :D


this article is interesting... I can sense there is fear...
http://www.nad.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=foINKQMBF&b=1777507&ct=2739571
and see the stats.. hmm?
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I look at this particular stat: 69.3% family don't regularly sign

I have to wonder how many families with one deaf child actually learned to sign and used it regularly when the children were sent to the state schools for the deaf and only came home a couple weeks a year? (and that isn't that far back)

What were the stats back then? probably much much lower so I'd think this is an improvment. Plus is this statistic based only on families where the deaf child uses ASL as a primary way of communication? I'm sure there are more questions to ask about this statistics but these are what really jump out at me. :)
 
jag said:
I have to wonder how many families with one deaf child actually learned to sign and used it regularly when the children were sent to the state schools for the deaf and only came home a couple weeks a year? (and that isn't that far back)
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A couple weeks a year? :hyper:

When I attended the state school for the deaf, I came home every weekend, holiday, and summer.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
A couple weeks a year? :hyper:

When I attended the state school for the deaf, I came home every weekend, holiday, and summer.
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yeah I know my dd comes home for the same days. BUT at one time the kids only went home a few times a year, NOT every weekend. I know a woman who graduated from MSAD back around 1980, she asked me if you dd actually LIKED staying in the dorms, and she asked because they didn't go home anywhere near as much as they do now. Basically she said she liked being with her friends but missed being with her family. My 4th grade teacher (all those years ago, hehe) also had a deaf daughter whom she only saw a few times a year and regretted she never learned to sign so she would have talked with her. That would have been back in the 50's/60's. I don't know exactly when they started to send the kids home more, sometime in the last20-30 yrs I suppose. So like i asked about that particular statistic has it improved?

So things have changed in the area of deaf edcation, families are now 'allowed' to have more interactions with their deaf children. That's a plus and has to have also had an effect on families learning to sign.
 
jag said:
yeah I know my dd comes home for the same days. BUT at one time the kids only went home a few times a year, NOT every weekend. I know a woman who graduated from MSAD back around 1980, she asked me if you dd actually LIKED staying in the dorms, and she asked because they didn't go home anywhere near as much as they do now. Basically she said she liked being with her friends but missed being with her family. My 4th grade teacher (all those years ago, hehe) also had a deaf daughter whom she only saw a few times a year and regretted she never learned to sign so she would have talked with her. That would have been back in the 50's/60's. I don't know exactly when they started to send the kids home more, sometime in the last20-30 yrs I suppose. So like i asked about that particular statistic has it improved?

So things have changed in the area of deaf edcation, families are now 'allowed' to have more interactions with their deaf children. That's a plus and has to have also had an effect on families learning to sign.
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My last foster mother, who is deaf, wanted to send me to MSSD. But I refused to go because that meant I would only get to come home for christmas and summer. And if something bad happened at school, I wouldn't be able to just come home. I wanted to be close to home with my foster mom and family.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
My last foster mother, who is deaf, wanted to send me to MSSD. But I refused to go because that meant I would only get to come home for christmas and summer. And if something bad happened at school, I wouldn't be able to just come home. I wanted to be close to home with my foster mom and family.
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That's why I wonder exactly how much families learning asl has changed. Although I'm surprised that there are still schools that keep kids year round. But sending these kids home to their families does force their families to learn to communicate with them. The number of families that have learned asl is probably higher then in the past, plus as I stated earlier are they just counting children who use asl as their primary form of communication?
 
You know, Jag -- my husband graduated from the state school for the deaf in 1967 and I have heard that students used to go home a few times a year compared to it being every weekend and they explained that this saves money rather than feeding the students over the weekends. I think my husband saw his family a bit more often than normal as they lived less than an hour away and besides he had a younger deaf sister who is the baby of the family.


jag said:
yeah I know my dd comes home for the same days. BUT at one time the kids only went home a few times a year, NOT every weekend. I know a woman who graduated from MSAD back around 1980, she asked me if you dd actually LIKED staying in the dorms, and she asked because they didn't go home anywhere near as much as they do now. Basically she said she liked being with her friends but missed being with her family. My 4th grade teacher (all those years ago, hehe) also had a deaf daughter whom she only saw a few times a year and regretted she never learned to sign so she would have talked with her. That would have been back in the 50's/60's. I don't know exactly when they started to send the kids home more, sometime in the last20-30 yrs I suppose. So like i asked about that particular statistic has it improved?

So things have changed in the area of deaf edcation, families are now 'allowed' to have more interactions with their deaf children. That's a plus and has to have also had an effect on families learning to sign.
Click to expand...
 
greema said:
You know, Jag -- my husband graduated from the state school for the deaf in 1967 and I have heard that students used to go home a few times a year compared to it being every weekend and they explained that this saves money rather than feeding the students over the weekends. I think my husband saw his family a bit more often than normal as they lived less than an hour away and besides he had a younger deaf sister who is the baby of the family.
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I think the reason why the students got sent home only a few times a year (back in the day) was because we didn't have better transportation then, or it just wasn't practical.

But now at my old school for the deaf, kids who lived more than 4-5 hours away flew home every weekend in a small plane. Others, like me, rode the "greyhound-style" buses (for lack of a better word). I only lived about an hour away.
 
My parents looked into sending me to the now-closed Jericho Hill School for the Deaf in Burnaby,BC but one of the main things that made them (along with myself) decide against it was I'd only be home for christmas, Easter, and summer holidays.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I think the reason why the students got sent home only a few times a year (back in the day) was because we didn't have better transportation then, or it just wasn't practical.

But now at my old school for the deaf, kids who lived more than 4-5 hours away flew home every weekend in a small plane. Others, like me, rode the "greyhound-style" buses (for lack of a better word). I only lived about an hour away.
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My profoundly deaf nephew goes to a residential school but is a day pupil. He goes every day in a taxi paid for by the local educational authority. It still takes him an hour though but great for my sister because she would rather have him home and of course it means that she and my niece can keep their signing up to date.

They do seem to have educational standard issues in that school though. My nephew has lost some of his classmates who transferred elsewhere due to this - they have some oral/lipreading skills but he doesn't.
 
greema said:
You know, Jag -- my husband graduated from the state school for the deaf in 1967 and I have heard that students used to go home a few times a year compared to it being every weekend and they explained that this saves money rather than feeding the students over the weekends. I think my husband saw his family a bit more often than normal as they lived less than an hour away and besides he had a younger deaf sister who is the baby of the family.
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On the contrary, some schools pay for students to go home, which would cost the school more money than feeding them, I'd imagine. I don't know how common this is, but a friend of mine was from Ohio and went to MSSD, and they paid for him to fly home for holidays and for weekends whenever he wanted to go. I'm sure they dreaded seeing him walk through the office doors, knowing they'd have to book him another flight home. :)
 
greema said:
You know, Jag -- my husband graduated from the state school for the deaf in 1967 and I have heard that students used to go home a few times a year compared to it being every weekend and they explained that this saves money rather than feeding the students over the weekends. I think my husband saw his family a bit more often than normal as they lived less than an hour away and besides he had a younger deaf sister who is the baby of the family.
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(and I Thought I was getting old. :) :) :) :whistle: j/k it does explain the peace out tho :scatter: )

It saves money on not just feeding them but on the dorm staff. They do have to provide supervision 24 hrs a day, plus someone in the health clinic to I would suppose. Dorm staff would also have to cover more hrs. in the day on weekends vs. during school days. So would cost more money.

Actually I think having a deaf child during that time would have been really difficult since if you put them in deaf schools they basically wanted you to give up your child and not have any say in his/her education and life. It was before IDEA. I can see why parents opted for Auditory approaches rather then send a 4 or 5 yo away.
 
ayala920 said:
On the contrary, some schools pay for students to go home, which would cost the school more money than feeding them, I'd imagine. I don't know how common this is, but a friend of mine was from Ohio and went to MSSD, and they paid for him to fly home for holidays and for weekends whenever he wanted to go. I'm sure they dreaded seeing him walk through the office doors, knowing they'd have to book him another flight home. :)
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In this state the home school district provides the transportation. They get out of having to actually hire an interpeter for a deaf child using ASL so they gladly pay to transport. (interpeters aren't necessarily cheap or easy to find) I do agree that some places going home every weekend may be more costly, but basically it's probably still cheaper to fly the kid home then it is to pay dorm staff wages/benefit...you might need to add to staff, or for the home district to hire a full time interpetor, pay and benefits (some people seem to not think about the fact that the school district does pay alot toward health insurance and other benefits. While you may hear screaming about money it may actually be more of a break even thing.
 
jag said:
In this state the home school district provides the transportation. They get out of having to actually hire an interpeter for a deaf child using ASL so they gladly pay to transport. (interpeters aren't necessarily cheap or easy to find) I do agree that some places going home every weekend may be more costly, but basically it's probably still cheaper to fly the kid home then it is to pay dorm staff wages/benefit...you might need to add to staff, or for the home district to hire a full time interpetor, pay and benefits (some people seem to not think about the fact that the school district does pay alot toward health insurance and other benefits. While you may hear screaming about money it may actually be more of a break even thing.
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Hmmm... Now that you mention it, that's what it was. His home district paid, not MSSD. Oops. :)
 
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