Educational Support Worker

Thirdfox

Hi there,

I've applied to be a note-taker for people with disabilities e.g. deaf etc.

Just wondering does anyone have any experience of working as a note-taker or know anything about it?

Thanks

xeduCat

The ESW job is fairly straightforward, and you'll get lots of info from Disability Services if you're going to be doing any work. Depending on what you end up doing, you'll probably have some direct contact with the student you're working with/for, so you can get an idea on preferred style etc. It's worthwhile, useful experience and don't be afraid to ask (SDS or your student(s)) if anything is bothering you. I did some bits of work and never had any serious difficulties, the main thing is to take time to find the right style and then just go with it.

snorlax

might be good to learn one or two things in sign language to help you comminicate to them, irish sign language is different from other countries.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

snorlax wrote:

might be good to learn one or two things in sign language to help you comminicate to them, irish sign language is different from other countries.

Yeah, I hear that the sign language of most countries are different from one another...what's that about? Seems a bit silly to me...

snorlax

well some countries use one hand and others use two, then there's international sign language too.

xeduCat

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI wrote:

Yeah, I hear that the sign language of most countries are different from one another...what's that about? Seems a bit silly to me...

It's similar to the way that most countries have different spoken languages. One sign language relates to another in the same way that one verbal language relates to another. There may be connections or similarities, but typically vocabulary and grammar are unique to each language.

Thirdfox

snorlax wrote:

might be good to learn one or two things in sign language to help you comminicate to them, irish sign language is different from other countries.

I know "What's your phone number?" if that's any help

snorlax

depends who's asking , you may find this article of help (it's quite detailed but interesting as there is gender differences in sign language aswell as national differences http://linggraduate.unm.edu/resources/proceedings/2002/Leeson%20Saeed%201.pdf

or http://www.irishdeafsociety.ie/home/images/ISL.pdf you may be able to order a book on it up from stacks too for pictures .

snorlax

snorlax wrote:

depends who's asking , you may find this article of help (it's quite detailed but interesting as there is gender differences in sign language aswell as national differences http://linggraduate.unm.edu/resources/proceedings/2002/Leeson%20Saeed%201.pdf

or http://www.irishdeafsociety.ie/home/images/ISL.pdf you may be able to order a book on it up from stacks too for pictures .

There are also CD's available

snorlax

but you have to pay money for those, im assuming thirdfox is a broke student like myself! stacks stacks and more stacks..thirdfox and you'll get the cd through that, there's even a sign for coffee i discovered today!

snorlax

snorlax wrote:

but you have to pay money for those, im assuming thirdfox is a broke student like myself! stacks stacks and more stacks..thirdfox and you'll get the cd through that, there's even a sign for coffee i discovered today!

CD's:

1. ISL dictionary : the Irish Sign Language CD-ROM : an essential multimedia resource for students of ISL and their tutors / [electronic resource]
Date: 1997, c1995-2004.
Location Call No. Status
Counter Reserve (Iveagh Hall) 8p19 P51;2 1 CD-ROM Trace
Santry (use call slip) JB- 2-806 1 CD-ROM In
Ussher, Lending 8p19 P51 1 CD-ROM DUE BACK: 31/01/06
Ussher, Lending 8p19 P51;1 1 CD-ROM In
Ussher, Open Access 8p19 P51;3 1 CD-ROM In
[ ] Mark Record

2. Sign away! : the Irish Sign Language CD-ROM : an essential multimedia resource for students of ISL and their tutors.
Date: 1997.
Location Call No. Status
Santry (use call slip) JB- 2-805 1 CD-ROM In

snorlax

!:D

Thirdfox

? What does that sign mean?

And... if worst comes to worst could I just write to them on a piece of page etc.?

Am I expected to be proficient in sign languages?

snorlax

probably not but knowing one or two things might be useful, im sure they'll show you one or two things, or you can get whoever your doing notes for to show you

sign above is the american one for coffee , it's tough sourcing irish ones on the net..

xeduCat

Relax. If you were applying for a job where sign was necessary, it would be stated. In fact, the vast majority of ESW work is for students with dyslexia / dyslexic students (opinions vary on what term is preferred), and much of it is solo (i.e. you take notes but not side-by-side with the student in question). Don't sweat it, just take things as they come.

Thirdfox

Putting the proverbial cart before the horse... I don't even know if they'll want me

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

xeduCat wrote:

It's similar to the way that most countries have different spoken languages. One sign language relates to another in the same way that one verbal language relates to another. There may be connections or similarities, but typically vocabulary and grammar are unique to each language.

Yes, but spoken languages are the product of millenia of independent evolutions of speech by isolated peoples. Presumably ( a brief and not very thorough google search didn't return much information ) sign languages are a relatively modern development, confined to a small subset of the population in a comparitively more global environment...surely it would have struck the original developers of sign languages to be a pretty good idea to work together on such a thing...

That said, I know next to nothing about the subject, so there may well be lots of unknown variables affecting the decision...

snorlax

i wonder if they look for people to work during the summer at it, i'd love to get a really cool job like that, it would be much better then just working in an office again.

snorlax

like female and male deaf people being separated in different schools and the result being there is a few slight differences between their sign language.

Agent Smith

Wow!

Agent Smith

Now that I have Recovered from the Shock of a ISl(ish) discussion on boards, may I answer some Questions

Q. Why is irish sign language diffrent then british sign language?
A. why is French French? Languages are Componded diffrently all around the world, the Same applys for Spoken Languages!

Q. where in Trinity can I learn Sign Language?
A. well, Trinity offer's 2 courses for people Wanting to learn ISL, Deaf Studies, and Dip in ISL Intertperting, Both fall Under the Free fee's. For more infomation you can PM me or Edumyth.

Q. why do males and Females Have Diffrent Signs For diffrent things?
A. Even in Hearing schools, Children make up words for Diffrent things, For example, The Sign for Starwars, was First seen in 1980 in st Joseph's for the Deaf school for boys. There Is Also Gay sign Variation, which i find Intreasting,
homosexuality within Deaf Society is on par with the rest of the population.

Hope that helps.

/me Signs Joe

xeduCat

Different paths in sign languages aren't especially unusual, when you consider that D/deaf communities were typically physically isolated and are thus similar to island dialects - common roots but wide differences even in small groups.

UNESCO (UN Education, Social and Cultural Organisation) has an annual 'mother languages' day - last year (05) was a special recognition of sign and braille languages. There's a presentation here (warning: Microsoft PPT format) that goes through some of the background info on sign languages. Also, if you're intrigued enough to find out more (about history as opposed to learning, which can't really be done from a book), there are some good books within the Ussher library, first floor, at 8p00 et al (a couple of rows in).

There are occasional introductory courses organised in TCD by the Centre for Deaf Studies, but they fill up quickly:

http://www.tcd.ie/Deaf_Studies/classes/

generally they are cheap!

Crash

Theres also the point that between languages, idea's differ. for instance certain languages have words for ideas that dont exist in the english languages. so when being taught sign in different countries, some of the mother tongue's ideas drift in.

John

TheGrinch_000 wrote:

Theres also the point that between languages, idea's differ. for instance certain languages have words for ideas that dont exist in the english languages. so when being taught sign in different countries, some of the mother tongue's ideas drift in.

Such as "saudade" in Portuguese