Northland Parents of Deaf Children

Published 09 July 2008, Posted in National

Are you the parent of a deaf or hard of hearing child?

Would you like to be part of an organisation that supports parents to provide their children with opportunities that will enable them to become the best that they can be.  Would you like your child to have the opportunity to go to camps with other deaf or hard of hearing children and families so they can make friends and parents can share concerns and information?

Northland Parents of Deaf Children Inc. (NPODC) is a voluntary organisation formed in 1994 by parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.

As parents we aim to support one another to provide our children with opportunities that will enable them to become the best that they can be.

We work closely with professionals to improve the quality of services to Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their families.

We believe it is important for parents to be heard and for their views and opinions to be valued and that they are important members of the “team”.

NPODC has held numerous camps for families with deaf and hard of hearing children where we also involved members of the Deaf Community. The incidence of deafness in the community is low so the families and the children are often the only “deaf” ones in their community and schools. In Northland this is compounded by distance so these camps are a wonderful opportunity for the children to get to know one another, form friendships, for parents to discuss any concerns and ideas, share information, get to know the Deaf adults and learn some sign language.

Our organisation also provides funds for the Resource Teachers of the Deaf to take the students on special outings such as the recent trip to Zion Lion Park and workshop with Circus Kumarani, which because of cost, they would not have been able to do. We also fund students to attend camps run by other organisations such as the DEAFinitely Youth Group, NZ Federation for Deaf Children and international groups.

We provide sign language dictionaries to those families who wish to use NZ Sign Language to communicate with their deaf children. 

Please download and complete the supporting document ‘Northland Parents Flyer’ then send to the secretary of the Northland Parents of Deaf Inc.

Supporting document

Northland_Parents_flyer_1.pdf ()