Teenagers, Telephones and Technology, Try it and Test IT day 2015

We held another of our popular ‘Teenagers, Telephones and Technology day’ at USAIS on 28^th March. Nine teens attended. The day started with a warm-up activity so that we could all get to know each other. Then the teens were split into two groups, one group went to do the telephone training first and the other went to do the technology session. The telephone training was very successful. The teens enjoyed experimenting with different phones using the tone and volume controls. They also got a 1:1 phone session going through some telephone training stages followed by a phone conversation with a staff member. Many of the teens felt more confident on the phone having tried the different settings. All of them had success with using the phone. The technology session also went well. A room loop had been set up for them to try out – this was a new experience for many of the teens. They also tried out personal audio cables and Bluetooth. One of our adult cochlear implant users, Vanessa Scott, kindly agreed to take part in the day. It was fantastic that Vanessa agreed to take part in the day as she is such an inspiration! Vanessa is very experienced in using different technologies to help her hear as well as possible in different situations despite only having had her implant for a few months. She went on to lead the group session where the teens tried out Skype and Facetime and talked about different apps that they use. Some of the apps that were suggested were new to the staff at USAIS so it was good for us to get some recommendations. The pizza lunch was delicious. We all enjoyed eating and chatting together. The overwhelming feedback from the day was how much the teens enjoyed meeting each other and trying things out. A comment from one of the teens expresses the feelings of many ‘it was nice to meet people who understand.’ All of the teens said that they had fun and would recommend the event to a friend with an implant. We will run the event again so do come and join us for the next one!