UKC

Hi
hoping you could give me some help and ideas.

I have agreed to take a friends son climbing at our local climbing gym. hi is 100% deaf and understands sign language ...( but i dont ) . what would be the best way in communicating? for example indicating if he wants to stop and come down from climbing? or if he is stuck?

plus evan if i did know sign language, i doubt he could use it in the case of been scared and gripping onto the wall.

he is around the age of 7 /8 ish

any advice would be truely helpfull

In reply to jason1993:

Hi Jason,

get in touch with Joe Gibson who works for Sense Scotland - he's written an entire PhD thesis on this subject and would be very happy to help you.

http://www.sensescotland.org.uk/what-we-do/outdoor-activities.aspx

Good luck,

Johannes.

In reply to Zippy1999: Thanks i have left him a message.

In reply to jason1993:
Perhaps he can teach you some sign language, the signs for up / down / take / ready / get me a drink / snack would probably be a starting point.
Progress gently so he doesn't get into a 'gripped' situation. For example practising letting go, leaning back and being lowered from low down and several times gradually gaining height.
Can he lip read? Make sure you belay from a position where he can see you as easily as possible - I guess close in to the wall and to one side.
Have fun!

In reply to jason1993:

I'm sure that His dad can Help you talk to him about the plan at the beggining.
The normal pointing down for down, Thumbs up for doing good etc should work
Some websites have diagrams of what to do Belaying etc

In reply to KiwiPrincess:

When i climbed with a Japanese speaking Beginner I belayed with Gri gri then I could Point to my left hand and mime side pull under cling etc if they were stuck on a move.

In reply to jason1993: When I was asked to do this same thing I contacted my local deaf society ,they had some one who was a signer and a climber,this worked really well ,sent the signer up on the rope next to them .otherwise arrange some basic signing between you both

In reply to jason1993:

Check with the parents that wearing a helmet isn't a problem, just in case? It's unlikely that he has any kind of hearing aid if he's 100% deaf, but there could be other reasons why the area around his ears shouldn't be be enclosed/restricted.

In reply to jason1993: I can't give you help, simply encouragement. I've taken out kids with learning disabilities in the past and what they achieve is great fun to watch. Please post how it goes.
Chris

In reply to jason1993:

Hi Jason

The National Deaf Children's Society (the UK's leading charity for deaf children and young people) has a whole project around supporting deaf children and young people to access sport and leisure. It is called the Me2 Deaf-Friendly project.

Please take a look at our website - www.ndcs.org.uk/me2

We have lots of ways we could support you, including; information & resources, training opportunities, volunteer support, publicising your activities and keeping you included in valuable networking opportunities.

For example, we have a training guide called 'Making Activities Deaf Friendly', and we could also put you in contact with iDID - a club recently created in Northampton just for deaf children and young people to get involved in adventure sports, their main sport is rock climbing. I'm sure they could support you. Take a look at their website - www.ididadventure.co.uk

If you'd like more information please do get in contact - me2@ndcs.org.uk

Kind Regards

Tom

In reply to Tom NDCS:

+1 regards iDID. They are really good to work with.

Graeme Hill

In reply to jason1993: Hi Jason

I run an organisation called iDID Adventure, specialising in events and adventure programmes for deaf and disabled individuals.

We recently held a pilot project to assess the needs of deaf people in Rock Climbing, featured on See Hear.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01q1gsl/See_Hear_Series_32_Episode_28...

We have looked at different methods of successfully climbing with deaf individuals and ensuring that instructors and climbers can effectively communicate with each other when on the wall.

I would be more than happy to arrange a chat with you to go through more information if you want. You can drop me an email: info@ididadventure.co.uk

All the best

Susanne Rees

In reply to iDID Adventure:
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01q1gsl/See_Hear_Series_32_Episode_28

The iDID piece starts at 11:30 and lasts seven minutes if you don't want to watch the rest of the programme.