April News

Some deaf students have had pagers for four months now. They are definitely using them. The average seems to be about 70 messages a month however there is a huge variation in the raw data. Many very low users and a few extremely high users. This will have to be understood.

We are trying to encourage independence and life skills. This includes communication and responsibility as well as making decisions for yourself. Look for evidence of this in the following examples.

On one occasion a panicked father phoned because he did not know where his daughter was. The pagers and the other kids tracked her down fairly
quickly.

"The pager has helped me talk to my grandparents. Now my grandpa pages me all the time to see what's up in school and see if I'm fine".

"The pager helps me most by letting me talk to my hearing teacher when the interpreter is not present".

"I can call for an interpreter myself. I don't have to ask Spencer to go and find one for me now".

"I call my mom just before I come to the apartment. My mom opens the door for me. I don't have to knock and now my little sister can sleep though her nap".

"I mostly use the pager with my family. They talk to me a lot more now than before".

"My mom has to go to the hospital a lot. I never knew when she was going before. Now she pages me every time she goes. Now I don't worry so much about my mother when I come home and she is not there. The bad thing is now she thinks I am old enough to make my own dinners".

"I use my pager to let interpreters and my teachers know when I am staying home sick from school or if I will be late because of an appointment. My mom didn't always do it for me before and some times the teachers would get mad. Now I tell them myself".

"I love to play the games on my pager. It takes a long time to get to school on the subway. I used to get bored. Now I play my games".

"For the first time ever, I can go on the subway by myself. My mom still pages me every 15 minutes, but boy, am I glad to go by myself'.

"I like being able to call my friends and meet them somewhere. I couldn't do that before. Sometimes I would go to a place to meet my friends and wait for hours but they got sick and couldn't call me. Now they can. It's great!"