On the 14th of March in 2017 our association organized a local educational day, where some of the latest research results were presented about the social development of Deaf children and the experience of educating Deaf children in other countries was introduced.

Doctor Marek Meristo (picture on the right) from Gothenburg University made an overview about some of the projects on which he has been working with hearing impaired children in Estonia, Sweden, Italy and Great Britain since 2004. These researches focused on the children`s ability to see the world through the eyes of another person and understand, what is the cause of other people`s words and actions. The purpose of these studies was to find out if or how much this kind of social ability is dependent on the children`s language development.

Professor Gary Morgan (on the left picture together with a sign language interpreter) from the London City University focused on the matters, which are essential for academic sucess in the classroom. An overview was given about how to understand the early communication experience and what effect it has to the children`s social and cognitive development.

Thank you to all participants, lecturers, organizers and supporters for an interesting day!

The event was funded by:

In 2016 the 150th anniversary of Deaf education in Estonia was celebrated. In honour of that the Estonian Deaf Union organised a thematical conference “Deaf education on the crossroads” (“Kurtide haridus teelahkmel“).

A summary and presentations of the conference can be found on the following website: http://www.ead.ee/380012

The European Federation of Associations of Teachers of the Deaf (FEAPDA) is an organization, which was founded in 1969 and brings together associations of teachers of the Deaf from all over Europe. The aim of FEAPDA is to represent and support teachers by sharing good practice through personal contacts and cooperation. To achieve this, after every two years FEAPDA organizes thematical congresses in member countries – in 2016 the congress took place in Luxembourg and the topic this time was Inclusion and what it means for deaf education.

On the invitation of the previous longtime FEAPEDA president Paul Simpson (on the picture) a member of our organization also attended this years event in order to raise professional knowledge and discuss the possibility of the Estonian association`s membership in FEAPDA. As FEAPDA was in the process of changing the policy of membership at that moment, then it was agreed that discussion in this field will continue after the new policy has been fully established.

The Estonian Association of the Teachers of Hearing Impaired Children will be looking forward to positive developments and a chance to become a member of FEAPDA.

A moment from a workshop during FEAPDA 2016 congress