anyone been on a NDCS family weekend?

[geekgirl]

We're going to a National Deaf Children's Society weekend in Newcastle this Friday - for families with children with 'additional needs'. Am really looking forward to it, and it's all free .
Has anyone else been on one?

Yep, we did, it was absolutely fab and totally worth the time. We learnt so much, if they hadn't given us it all in writing it would have been total information overload, let alone the fact that you get to mix with other families in the same position as yourself as well as meeting deaf adults and people with older deaf kids. I can't recommend these weekends highly enough.

great!

I can't wait. Am really pleased that they're doing special ones for families with dc with additional needs - looking forward to meeting other people in the same boat, and it'll be dh's first 'SN' event since having dd2 7 years ago .

We didn't do one of the additional needs ones as we would have had to wait another 5 months for one to come up any where near us. I'm not that patient! My biggest worry was leaving the kids at the mobile creche they had (never come across that before!) but it was great, the kids were all in the room next door, they bought soooo much stuff with them, there wasn't a chance of them getting bored and they had a very good child/staff ratio. The hotel was a nice one and had its own swimming pool, the food was pretty good too. The only problem we had was that the kids thought they were on holiday and didn't want to go home, they thought for a long time afterwards that they could go back again! If it's anything like the weekend we did, the dads all get a chance to chat away from the mums (obviously the only way they stood a chance of getting a word in edgeways ) and that wasn't just in the bar in the evening!

You could try posting on parent place on the NDCS site to see if you could chat to anyone else going on the same event. The only problem is that there will not be that many families going and not everyone is aware of parent place before the weekend. I replied to someone on the weekend we went on who had posted so at least I felt I "knew" someone when we got there. Hope you have a good weekend.

We have applied for one in the autumn (also for children with additional needs), so would love to know how you get on!

i've been looking at this myself. Feel a bit of a fraud with it all though.

Why do you feel like a fraud? I ask because we have just discovered DD's hearing loss is milder than earlier tests have shown--so am wondering if she is 'deaf enough'.

Well just that really. She has moderate hearing loss. It's about 60-80 decibells loss but only in the higher range, softer sounds. She has an overall loss of 10-20 decibells but can 'hear' although she now has a hearing aid in her right ear and may well get one in her left ear - both to amplify the softer sounds and to aid her speech (the "sh" "sss" "th" and "ch" "t" sounds).

well, dd2's hearing loss is 'only' moderate - but it's still a devastating loss in terms of speech acquisition for her, so please don't feel a fraud for having a child who is not as deaf as a post.
Will report back! Thanks for the tip re. NDCS chat boards - will see if anyone from there is going.

oh I know gg. Just feeling a bit sensitive about it atm.

She copes so well, and apart from the speech (which most people who know her are used to) you'd just think she was a bit of a daydreamer. Had quite a few "does she really need a hearing aid?" type comments since she had it fitted beginning of last week.

The weekend we went on had a real mix of levels of deafness from mild to profound so I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't sign up vvv. Some of the stuff covered wouldn't be entirely relevant to your circumstances same as it wouldn't all be entirely relevant to a family with a profoundly deaf child. Certainly the section on understanding audiology would be important to everyone, it was a real eye opener for us. Feeling that people should say that about your dd, of course the NHS hand out very expensive digital hearing aids like smarties to anyone who asks! I should imagine your dd has got pretty good at lip reading and noting peoples body language and facial expressions to adjust for her hearing loss that other people wouldn't realise. I hope none of these comments have put her off wearing them.

I think we will still gothe only thing that would stop us would be if DD's hearing proves completeley normal at the next test (it might just be wax blocking her grommets at the momentshe has normal bone conduction levels)