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 hearing brings extra challenges and can make it harder to fit into college life, leaving students feeling isolated.

DS3 tackles this by offering a summer school for secondary school students. This takes place during the summer before college. Here, students can meet other deaf or hard of hearing students and build up a network of friends to turn to when starting college. Sometimes they may be lucky enough to find someone going to the same college or even doing the same course.

DS3 can also arrange shadow days for 5th/6th year students for students to shadow someone in the career they wish to study. This benefits students as they can see first hand the challenges they would face, and find out if they would like the job or not.

Once students get to college, DS3 is also there to help. Students receive texts on a regular basis to make sure they are doing OK and in November there is a summer school reunion.

The main challenges that DS3 faces is getting through to students in schools. There is no simple way to do this other than through the CAO, which is not always reliable. It is important for students and parents to know that DS3 exists as the transition into college can be made easier.

Each year there has been an increase in numbers attending the summer school and it is hoped this will continue.

DS3 provides information on the supports available to third level students including note takers, subject specific tuition, academic support, reading support, electronic notetaking and ISL interpreters.

The DS3 website has more information on all of the above. As Emma notes the website is “for students by students”. The content is student friendly with blogs and videos. In the blogs students talk about the supports they use, the challenges they face and also some of the fun they have. They are good reading for students considering college.

DS3 is also on YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. Through these sites students can get in contact with old friends and make new ones.

Further Reading:

An Aspiring Deaf Dentist Identifies The Challenges

Educational Supports Unlock Students´ Potential

Trinity College Dublin´s DS3 Website Goes Live

A new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) suggests computers are now better at lip-reading than humans.

The performance of a computer based lip-reading system was compared to that of 19 human lip-readers. Results showed the computerised system was over 50% better at recognition than the humans completing the same task.

Simultaneously, the study found that while lip-reading humans required a full video of the individual speaking, computers could work with simple features such as the shape of the face.

The study also found that compared to the typical approach to lip-reading training in which individuals are taught to spot lip-shapes from drawn images, the full appearance of speech gestures is very important.

Using this video-based training system, viewers with limited skills improved their ability to lip-read monosyllabic words. This research may improve methods of lip-reading training for deaf and hard of hearing people.

“This pilot study is the first time an automated lip-reading system has been benchmarked against human lip-readers and the results are perhaps surprising”, said the study’s lead researcher, Sarah Hilder.

“With just four hours of training it improved their lip-reading skills markedly. We hope this research is a technological advance for the deaf community.”

RNID campaign manager Agnes Hoctor commented, “We would welcome the development of video-based or online training resources to supplement the teaching of lip-reading”.

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

Related Reading

Parent Question: How Early To Teach Lip-Reading

Communication Options Chart For Deaf Children

Speech & Lip-Reading

Ballymahon Convent of Mercy Secondary School is breaking ground in deaf education in the midlands with a new deaf unit, which is currently educating two young girls in the mainstream system.

An initiative of Eileen O’Donovan (graduate in Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin), the unit was set up in September 2008 and supports several deaf students by teaching through sign language.

The students learn all mainstream subjects but are exempt from languages. During these periods they get extra support with English and other subjects.

This unit, the first in the midlands, offers students an alternative to travelling to Cabra in Dublin and allows them to live at home with their families.

Fourth year student Callista Mulligan travels from Offaly each day. Her class are learning sign language and this has helped her settle into school.

She says, “I think the sign language classes are a great idea. When I don’t understand something in class people help me and I can teach them sign.

I didn’t have friends in my old school so sign language made the transition much easier here. It’s nice to make new friends and it is also nice to meet other deaf students at the school. It’s worth the commute every day.”

Other students enjoy learning sign language. Dawn Murtagh commented: “It’s great, it helps us talk to Callista and engage with her. We aim to be able to use it in every day conversation. I’m even thinking about doing something in this field in later life.”

There is no reason students in other schools cannot learn sign language, and it could easily be taught at national school level, as is happening at the national school in Ballymahon, Cork.

St Columba’s national school in Cork also teaches sign language to its students.  In a comment they said, “We follow the bilingual educational philosophy giving equal recognition to sign language and English and, as a result, all our children, both hearing and deaf, are learning sign language. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences for all concerned”

In the past, St Aloysius College in Cork taught its fourth year students sign language. The initial aim of this module was to learn signs to a song which would be performed during that year’s Christmas service with students then deciding to further their learning. Learning song lyrics was an easy and fun way to learn basic words such as and, you, me, for and the.

Learning sign language in school can open up opportunities later in life, be it in the workforce or even when travelling. This summer, 20 year old Lucy traveled to India where she volunteered in a school for the deaf. Her past knowledge of sign language helped her both at the school, and when communicating with locals who did not speak English.

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)

The development of deaf children fitted with a cochlear implant is being profiled in a study at Malaga University, headed by Ignacio Moreno-Torres.

Three months after receiving an implant, all children profiled could recognise sounds in their immediate environment.  Social and family factors were also analysed in the study for a more in-depth result.

Children become used to the implant and know this is why they can hear, so they protest if the device is switched off.

After an implant, sounds made by the young children had more intensity and in later months children could produce syllables such as mamama.

Every child is different but first words were usually heard about six months after implants were activated. Just one child has completed the full study, and produced fifty different words in a final session, according to the team.

This information is encouraging as it shows that in just 12 months it is possible to achieve what hearing children would in 18 months.

So far eleven children have taken part in the project. Nine collections have been taken from each child. The first takes place just before implantation, whilst the others begin a month and a half after activation.

Future plans involve another study, which will provide data on the later development stages. The team aims to study the progress of grammar, lexis and phonology in children who have used implants for three to four years.

This will indicate how ready these children are to attend mainstream primary schools, as many do on a global basis.

Further Reading

Benefits of Cochlear Implants In Children

(compiled by Miriam Walsh)