lack of information and support and facilities and ..and ..and arggh

[Tortington]

so you prob know that mi DD partially deaf - only found out relativley recently - sussex hospital - fab. suppot at school ..eggsellent. in fact i cant believe that two different health authorities - east & west sussex can coordinate so effectivley fo DD.

so why cant she get sign language classes?

its easy right? no... there are adult classes, but no kids classes - when i asked if this was insane the reply was - erm.. yes it is actually - but i must realise that the policy is for deaf children to lip read? you what.... isnt that like forcing left handed kids to use their right hand?

its insane. some schools do after school classes - but not near us. there is a deaf school in brighton - i phones and asked over a week ago - no one phoned back - what they did say was that i would have to pay for DD to learn.

got back intouch with the sussex deaf society who refered me to the worthing deaf society - i got a mail from someone who said they would teach DD in his own time. i asked how much this would cost - suddenly i get no reply.

the whole thing is too complicated

i am a community worker for gods sake - i find organisations for a living. i do this for a living - why is this so hard?

it shouldnt be

there you go

ps
my DD is soo determined she is learning BSL from a web site word by word.

Custy, do you want me to email my mate again? She is a teacher for the profoundly deaf, she may have an answer. She did have a baby in October though, so might take a few days to reply. I will if you think it will help.

what a frustrating situation to be in. Hope you get something sorted soon, I cant beleive the policy on lip reading! We have problems finding free courses for learning makaton even though 80% of the children at my dd's school use it - madness!

custy this is terrible.

have a look at the inclusive technology webpage they do a software package about bsl. No idea how much it is, but a lot of LEAS have IT suppoort services who may be able to help.