Ways in which the internet has changed the way business operate in the Essay

Ways in which the internet has changed the way business operate in the global marketplace - Essay Example It is a business process in which jobs of one organization is getting done in another distant organization with the help of internet. In other words, an American organization can get their work done through an Indian organization without travelling to India. Internet provides all the platforms like email, audio and video conferencing etc for enhancing business communications between people staying in different parts of the world. It should be noted that India like countries have huge manpower strength and therefore labour charges in these countries are extremely low whereas in countries like America, manpower shortage is visible everywhere and therefore labour changes are more. Outsourcing helps American organizations to exploit the cheap labour markets and save billions of dollars every year. According to new figures released by the United States Department of Commerce e-Commerce Sales accounted for 2.4% of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2005, up from 2.3% the previous quarter, Total fourth quarter e-commerce revenues came to a seasonally adjusted $22.94 billion. For all year 2005, e-commerce sales rose by 24.6% according to information from the U.S. Census Stats (Internet World Stats News) E-commerce is another business segment developed as a result of the introduction of internet. Many people started to rely on internet for their purchasing needs. It is easy to purchase majority of the products available in the world through internet. One of the major advantages of internet purchase is the opportunity to purchase anything from anywhere in the world at any time, using credit cards. Internet opened many opportunities to sell domestic products in international market. Earlier, it was difficult for small companies to sell their products in international markets because of the difficulties in accomplishing exporting and importing formalities. However, it is easy for such companies to sell their products through internet without much hassles. â€Å"In

Conflict Theory in Garage Sale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Conflict Theory in Garage Sale - Essay Example Competition among groups in society is always the cause of conflict (Hensli, 12). Most often the cause of conflict is when the garage sale is more patronized by the buyers where it may create possible closure of legitimate businesses because of scarce customers. Looking at the assumption of conflict theory, it dictates that conflict arises when there is a scarce resource (customers). When this happens, owners of legitimate businesses would dictate the situation prohibiting individuals to engage in garage sales. They could enforce laws because they are considered the dominant group in selling by virtue of their business permit. Being a dominant class or group means they could impose rules to protect their privilege and interest to the expense of the inferior group. However, individuals involved in such business who want to earn a living doing garage sale may repulse the idea through protesting causing tension between the two groups. Conflict theory assumes that the economic factor is always the cause of conflict. In addition, tension continues to occur because of exploitation or manipulation of others. Reference Henslin, James. Sociology. A Down-to-Earth Approach. Allyn and Bacon publishing. 2007.

Analysis of Free Trade and Free Trade Agreements

Analysis of Free Trade and Free Trade Agreements Introduction In 1776 Adam Smith published â€Å"The Wealth of Nations†, in which he introduced the proposition that free trade among nations improves overall economic welfare. The concept of free trade has since become a generally accepted principle. A considerable number of economists assume that free trade is beneficial for countries involved in and raises overall economic welfare. Free trade, generally explained as the elimination of tariffs, quotas, or other governmental restrictions on international trade. This allows each nation to specialize in the production of goods that it can produce relatively cheaper and more efficient than other countries, which eventually results in higher real income. In spite of free trades benefits, it sometimes hurts the domestic industry, because the removal of tariffs makes it difficult for domestic firms to compete with the cheaper imports of that good coming from partners. Free trade agreements among countries are set up multilaterally, bilaterally or regionally. Multilateral agreement involves a number of countries, which is currently promoted by World Trade Organization (WTO) that also permits implementation of bilateral (involves two countries) and regional (involves two or more countries in a region) arrangements. WTO website reports that 462 bilateral and regional trade agreements are in force up to February 2010. In this report, the theory of free trade agreements is analyzed on the basis of economics along with their practice in real life taking into account the examples of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU). Furthermore, given empirical evidence related to free trade agreements provides a clear picture of the pattern of those agreements. Economic Integration Free trade agreement (FTA) is a negotiated treaty among a designated group of countries that have accepted to eliminate trade barriers between them. As a consequence, member countries allow one another preferential consideration in trade. In order, this results in closer economic integration between nations. Economic integration is materialized under several associations. First of those is free trade areas (FTAs), under which tariffs and non-tariff barriers on trade have been eliminated between members, nevertheless, each country preserves its private trade policies outside the region. The second preferential trade institution is customs union, in which countries create free trade among members and keep hold ofcommon tariffs and other policies outside the organization. Common markets, the third type of preferential trade, is a further step of customs union, which not only promotes elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers with common tariffs for non-members, but also free moveme nt of capital and labour across internal borders within the market. The last form of arrangement in terms of preferential treatment is economic union, in which countries go further beyond by bringing together their economies with setting up a common currency, in order a unified monetary policy, at the same time as other economic institutions. The most essential example of such a group of member countries is the European Union, which initially started as a customs union and eventually reached to an economic union.According to Cooper (2005), majority of recent FTAs comprise rules oneconomic activities along with trade in goods, including foreign investment, intellectualproperty rights protection, treatment of labor and environment, and trade in services.The dimension and complexity of the FTA will predominantly demonstrate the size and difficulty ofthe economic relations. Economics of Free Trade Free trade agreements are believed to bring economic growth to member countries with respect to the volume of trade. According to Trentmann (1998:226), â€Å"thedoctrine of free trade, that provides unrestricted commodity exchange between places is the best way to advance their mutual prosperity†. To explain the benefits of free trade, economists use David Ricardos theory of comparative advantage and basic tariff or quota analysis. In 1817 Ricardo presented the concept of comparative advantage, which is regarded as one of the most significant laws of economics. It refers to, for a country,producing a good or a service at a lower cost compared to another good within an economy. Therefore, the comparative advantage ability of a nation contributes to trade with its partner. Even if a country has an absolute disadvantage in producing any good than the other nation, there is still a foundation for joint beneficial trade. According to the theory, bearing in mind two goods, the first nation should specialize in production and exportation of the good, in which it has smaller absolute disadvantage and importationof the item in which its absolute disadvantage is greater.As a result, specialization among nations, allows them to allocate their scarce resources to the production of the certain goods and services, in which that country has a comparative advantage. Since free trade grants specialization among countries, this expands worldwide output level. The welfare of specialization with economies of scale, which is the fall in costs because of output increases, makes the global production possibility frontier to enlarge. This displays the fact that under free trade the quantity of produced goods and services is higher than the previous level, which leads to international economic prosperity. Another method of describing the advantage of free trade is using a basic tariff analysis. A tariff is a tax on imports, which simply raises the price collected by domestic producers of that good. Figure 1 shows the benefit of free trade with the example of tariff assumption. The above graph illustrates the imposition of an import tariff on a made-up good. Previous to tariff, Pworld is the price of the good in the world market. However, the levied tax on the good increases the domestic price from Pworld to Ptariff. As a consequence of higher prices, the domestic production grows from Qs1 to Qs2 at the same time domestic consumption shrinks from Qc1 to Qc2. The increase in price due to introduced tariff has significant effects on the welfare of the society. This ultimately leads to a decrease in consumer surplus with the new border of Ptariff level, a rise in producer surplus up to Ptariff level, and additional revenue for the government (the blue area). Nevertheless, the consumer loss is considerably more than the profits of producers and the government together. The size of societal loss is shown by the two triangles. Hence, imposition of tariff makes society worse off, vice versa; free trade would provide a net gain for society. The similar analysis of export tariffs, import and export quotas all generate practically very same results. This makes consumers occasionally better off and producers worse off or sometimes consumers worse off and producers better off, yet establishing trade barriers create a net loss to trading countries as the amount of losers from trade limitations is greater than winners from those restrictions. Landsburg (2004), based on empirical evidence, states that free trade also produces winners and losers; nonetheless, the volume of gains from free trade is bigger than the losses. Hence, being under free trade positively affects nations economic welfare. Economic impact of free trade Formation of free trade agreements throughout the world raises notions about their impact on member countries and nonmembers. The issue has been discussed by economists and separated them into those who are strongly against the free trade and find it economically inefficient, and those who are in favour of it and believe that it creates freer trade. To build their analysis on the impact of the free trade, economists use the theories of trade creation and trade diversion. Jacob Viner first introduced these theories in 1950, whose work later has been mostly applied for free trade agreements. The concept of trade creation is based on the assumption that a member country substitute domestic production of a good with imports of that good from another member, since launch of free trade makes it more profitable to import rather than produce domestically. This is also described as a shift from a higher cost domestic zone to a lower cost partner source. Trade creation with an example of a European Union (EU) member. A member country should import from a EU partner, which charges a lower price thanks to termination of tariffs and this leads to a rise in consumer surplus. The creation of trade contributes to economic welfare within the member countries as resources are utilized more efficiently. Trade diversion is implemented when a member country shifts its import of a good from an efficient nonmember to a less efficient partner in view of the fact that elimination of tariffs among the members and imposition of tariffs on imports from nonmembers make it more affordable to do so. It is a shift from lower cost international territory to a higher cost regional partner source. The graph of trade diversion again using the example of EU. In view of the fact that, EU is a customs union, it has a common external tariff on products coming from nonmember countries. This raises the price of imports from the rest of the world, which at the same time brings inefficiency by reducing consumer surplus. Consequently, costs are higher for a EU country if it formerly had entry for a lower cost producer. The graph also shows the deadweight losses as a result of trade diversion. Trade diversion is meant to lower economic welfare as a less efficient producer now uses resources rather than an efficient one. In general, creation of free trade agreements are subject to both trade creation and trade diversion. When countries are forming a freer trade among themselves, with respect to pattern of the agreement, they could be economically and financially deteriorated. This would be a result if diversion of trade exceeds its creation according to Lipsey and Lancasters (1956) general theory of the second best principle. Therefore, forming a FTA does not always improve efficiency or bring prosperity, but sometimes moving to it may reduce the national welfare of the nations involved. Empirical Evidence Foundation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947, significantly affected expansion of world trade by reducing tariff barriers on manufactured goods. Over the years, average tariffs have fallen from around 40 percent to about 5 percent currently. GATT became World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and now involves worlds 153 countries. Although WTOs success on world trade, it still has the problem of maintaining and extending liberalism in the global trading system. Multilateral negations, which include many trading partners, over trade liberalization move very slowly. Besides this, it has not had a great success in liberalizing trade in agriculture, textile, or apparel industries. For this reason, rather than multilateral negotiations, bilateral or regional trade agreements has become a preference for a number of countries. Source:http://www.unescap.org/tid/projects/rtaap_overview.pdf The rapid increase in the regional trade agreements from the 1950s hitherto. It is indicated that around 450 RTAs have been notified to the WTO, of which almost 250 are currently in force. Source: http://www.unescap.org/tid/projects/rtaap_overview.pdf Source: http://www.unescap.org/tid/projects/rtaap_overview.pdf In its early years, implementation of a free trade agreement was subject to free trade of only goods, however, currently trade agreements involves trade in services as well. According to the UNESCAP (2009), out of current 246, 171 RTAs cover trade in goods, 61 trade in services and 15 are accessions to existing RTAs. Besides this, 70% of RTAs being reached an agreement but not yet in force, provides free movement of services on trade. Source: http://www.unescap.org/tid/projects/rtaap_overview.pdf The above chart displays that the majority of trade agreements with 82% are free trade areas, whereas only 11% of those account for customs union and the remaining part belongs to partial scope. Slow progress on the multilateral agenda has led to many countries to attain more efficient negotiations for the deeper regional integration.One of these agreements is North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA NAFTA is a trilateral free trade treaty that came into force in January 1994 involving three countries-United States, Canada, and Mexico. The fundamental object of the agreement was to put an end to the huge majority of trade barriers among the members. The formation of NAFTA led to the instant removal of tariffs on US-Mexico business transactions, whereas nearly all US-Canada trade was already tax-free. According to Hufbauer and Schott (2005), NAFTA was created to boost economic growth by stimulating competition in domestic markets and promoting investment through national and international sources. They also state that this has worked and consequently has brought efficiency and productivity to North American Firms. Currently, they can benefit from economies of scale in production and intra-industry specialization. NAFTA at a Glance NAFTA Partners Canada U.S. Mexico Combined Population (2008 est.) 33.3 million 304.1 million 106.7 million 444.1 million Languages English and French English Spanish GDP (2008) 1,501 billion 14,441 billion 1,087 billion 17.0 trillion Trade with NAFTA 570.8 billion 919.9 billion 393.5 billion 946.1 billion Inward FDI (2008) 240.0 billion 229.8 billion 156.0 billion _1 Jobs created (1993-2008) 4.3 25.1 9.3 39.7 Employment Level, 2008 17.1 145.4 43.2 205.7 Source: http://www.naftanow.org/facts/default_en.asp Establishment of NAFTA has contributed significantly to the trade relations between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Although, economists disagree whether the growth is a direct outcome of the agreement, the expansion is proved by the facts from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). USTR (2008) reports that trade within the members more than tripled between 1993 and 2008, from $297 billion to $946.1 billion. Besides this, business investment in the United States has risen by 117 percent between the same years, as compared to a 45 percent rise in the fourteen years prior. Trade with NAFTA members, currently, makes up more than 80 percent of Canadian and Mexican trade, and more than a third of U.S. trade. NAFTA has allowed North American businesses to have a better entry to sources including materials, technology, investment and human capital accessible within the partners. This brings competitiveness to the businesses in the North America as a consequence of trade liberalization. In order, trade liberalization makes an important role in promoting economic growth. Since NAFTA came into force, the economy of member countries has more than doubled in size. As it is shown in the Figure 4, in 2008, the combined gross domestic product (GDP) for partners exceeded US$17 trillion, up from US$7.6 trillion in 1993. Both Mexico and Canada have experienced economic growth since the formation of NAFTA. Being a member of this institution caused a rapid increase in trade with the United States for these economies. Thanks to trade liberalization, a substantial reduction in prices for Mexico and Canadas consumers occurred as a result of tariff removals along with bringing up efficiency in business relations.In case of United States, NAFA countries became top two largest export markets in 2008. USTR (2009) reports that the value of U.S. exports to NAFTA was $412.4 billion in 2008, up 7.2 % ($27.6 billion) from 2007, and up 190% from 1993 (the year before NAFTA). The top export categories (2-digit HS) in 2008 were: Machinery ($63.5 billion), Vehicles (parts) ($59.5 billion), Electrical Machinery ($49.2 billion) and Mineral Fuel and Oil ($27.9 billion), and Plastic ($22.3 billion) (USTR. 2009). U.S. exports to NAFTA evaluated 32.0% of total U.S. exports in 2008, down slightly from 32.2% in 1994. Whereas U.S. imports from NAFTA accounted for 26.4% of overall U.S. imports in 2008, down from 26.9% in 1994. NAFTA countries Canada ($339.5 billion) and Mexico (215.9 billion) are totaled the largest and third largest importers for U.S. respectively in 2008. U.S. goods imports from NAFTA accounted for $554.4 billion in 2008, up 5.2% ($27.7 billion) from 2007, and up 268% from 1993 (USTR, 2009). The five largest categories in 2008 were Mineral Fuel and Oil (crude oil) ($157.8 billion), Vehicles ($79.7 billion), Electrical Machinery ($63.5 billion), Machinery ($46.5 billion), and Special Other (returns) ($14.3 billion). It is very obvious that NAFTA has become very successful in soaring trade between its member nations. Yet, it is not very clear to understand whether the increase is really contributed to world trade or whether the increase actually symbolizes trade diversion. Just like any other free trade area, NAFTA members are subject to hold their own external tariff for third countries. This behavior of FTAs features Rules of Origin (ROO) concept. Its intention is to prevent trade deflection, i.e. goods or services accessing the member country with the lowest tariff for the object of trans-shipment. Although a product, coming from a member, has an access of free entry, if it contains material or processing from a third country it is then necessary to set which such inputs are permitted (Augier). A quite number of negative effects are attributed to ROO in economic literature. It could be said that these rules are protectionist and leads to negative economic welfare.Krueger (1997) states that eve n where the purpose of ROO is not protectionist, they provide a great amount of cost for producers and administrators. NAFTA possesses restrictive rules of origin procedure as well.Hufbauer and Schott (2005:23) comment that in a few industries, most notably textiles and apparel where yarn forward rules of origin were imposed specifically to make US textile firms the preferred suppliers for Mexican apparel manufacturers, NAFTA has indeed fostered trade diversion†.The rules of origin have possibly brought about trade diversion for certain industries under NAFTA. European Union European Union (EU) is the worlds largest trading bloc. The Treaty of Rome established the foundation of the EU in 1958. This treaty created a supranational institution called European Economic Community (EEC) between six countries (France, Western Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). The primary purpose of the EEC was to create a customs union and an incomplete common market. Customs Union has entailed free trade between members with the protection of the union against the rest of the world. Merging markets brought up rapid progress in the 1960s and early 1970s. The following objective was to implement an economic union by setting up common policies. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty implemented the single market and the European Union was formally established. Currently, the EU involves 27 countries with over 500 million population. The advantages from free trade predicted by theory encouraged the founders of EU to adopt removal of barriers on trade. In the 1970s and 1980s the new partners both those, which joined in 1972 (the UK, Ireland and Denmark) and those, which joined in the 1980s (Spain, Portugal, and Greece) eliminated all tariffs and quotas in intra-EU trade. After the completion of the customs union, the EU has picked a common external tariff (CET) in their relation with the rest of the world. The CET principle applies generally to all manufactured products. Until recently it did not apply to agricultural products market, which is protected by the EU. Nonetheless, being under a customs union has had a favorable influence on the EU members so that trade among member states overweighs the trade with the third countries. Between 1958 and 1972, the trade among the six original EU members had increased by nine times, whereas goods trade with the third countries grew by three times (Molle, 2006). This was attributed to the trade creation effect of the EU. In 1993, the completion of single market provided removal of all trade barriers and free movement of goods, services, capital and people within the EU. It is believed that the single market actually benefits the union with reducing the business costs along with stimulating competition and increasing efficiency for the advantage of consumers. BIS reports that in 2006 the EUs GDP was 2.2% higher than it would have been in the absence of the Single Market, which benefited consumers by an average increase of â‚ ¬518 per capita. Furthermore, an extra 2.75 million jobs have been created as a result of the single market across Europe. Molle (2006) states that in the period 1960-2000 intra-EU trade has expanded by almost 7 per cent annually, which is considerably in excess of GDP growth. The main factors of this growth were the EU integration and ongoing liberalization of world trade. After the enlargement of Austria, Finland, and Sweden in 1995, original members trade with the three new partners increased significantly, indicating an effect of integration. In 2004 and 2007, EU experienced its biggest enlargement by the join of 12 Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). This resulted in changes in the EUs trade pattern because enlargement made the new partners as a part of intra-EU trade, which used to be considered as an extra-EU commerce. As a result, EUs internal trade accounted for nearly two thirds of the EUs total foreign trade, summing approximately â‚ ¬4.9 trillion in 2006 (Panorama of European Union Trade). David (2009) based on his research, states that the enlargement led to a net trade creation caused by notable gross trade between the EU and CEECS. Although exports from older 15 members to new eastern European members surpass their imports, this in general increases liberalized trade between partners and creates overall positive impact. Free Trade Area vs Customs Union Both of these two major forms of economic integration have a distinctive behavior that has notable implications. For an FTA, with every single country possessing its own external tariff, the ROO is the typical feature. In terms of a CU, the distinguishable factor is the common external tariff (CET), which is related to third countries. When a common external tariff is the case, imports into the unions area meet the same tariff in each member country; therefore there is no incentive for trans-shipment of imports among members. Mirus and Rylska statethat the once CET established, it remains non-negotiable, although this may result in increase in non-tariff barriers, common commercial and trade policies would limit such attempts. The administrative simplicity in a CET makes it easy to implement, promoting efficiency and competition as a result of lowered input costs. Taking into account FTAs ROO feature, Krueger (1995) has revealed that an FTA does not cause more net trade creation than a CU for the same partners. Besides this, an FTA will not be economically more successful than a CU for the same members, if the CET is placed below the level of the high cost country. In this situation, trade is created when the high cost nation lowers production because of tariff cuts, in contrast an FTA would maintain the tariff and creates less trade. Considering the protectionist (trade-diversion) effect of ROO, this accounts for more trade creation and less trade diversion for a CU. Bearing in mind the borders and separate customs operation under an FTA, a CU resembles a larger single market, in which the power of interest groups compared to an FTA is significantly low and scale economics along with competition effects are importantly greater. Furthermore, a fairly large CU will have a remarkable influence on the prices of globally traded products, compellin g non-member countries to undertake the existed prices inside the CU. As a result, non-members will export to the CU at prices that contains CET and transport costs, granting an aspect of monopsony power to the CU. This effect is not that clear for an FTA with similar partners. Hence, the welfare-enhancing benefit of a CU is greater than those of an FTA. Conclusion This report provides analysis of free trade and free trade agreements with their economic implications including economic integration, comparative advantage, trade creation and trade diversion effects. Moreover, the practical impacts of NAFTA, the worlds largest free trade area, alongside the European Union, which is the worlds biggest customs union, are surveyed. The results reveal that formation of both of these institutions has enormously increased the dimensions of trade among members. In addition, a rise in investment, competition and closer economic integration has contributed economic welfare of the countries involved. Welfare enhancing characteristic of free trade as a consequence of elimination of trade barriers stimulate nations to implement free trade agreementsacross the world. This was primarily undertaken by GATT/WTO, however, inefficiency and inadequacy of this institution in trade liberalization required countries to move towards the bilateral and regional trade agree ments preferred to multilateral trade negotiations. Under regional trade agreements, Bhagwati (1992) states that trade diversion is more likely to prevail trade creation in most cases. Besides this, the dominant view among mainstream economists is that regionalism is disadvantageous for the multilateral trading system because they bear discriminatory features in their nature. In contrast, Krugman favors regional agreements and states that contemporary trade barriers are much more complicated to agree on multilateral level, whereas, negotiating in regional forums is really easy to cope with. Moreover, he does not find regional trade agreements to have any kind of negative effect on multilateral structure. Recent studies demonstrate that,under regional and bilateral trade agreements, trade diversion effects are limited and a significant amount of trade creation effects dominate under those treaties (Urata and Okabe, 2007).Both the cases of NAFTA and the European Union show that the tr ade creation effects prevail, as a result, this generates economic welfare.

Thomas Edison: A Person Who Changed America :: American History

Thomas Edison   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thomas Edison changed America in a very big way,He held patents for over a 1000 inventions. His most important one was the electic lamp. Thomas Edison has made America a better place to live.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Born In Milan,Ohio Thomas Edison was an American genius of technology , His most known inventions were the electric lamp the phonograph and the motion picture projector.Edison set up a labrotory in his fathers basement when he was just 10 years old.At the age of 12 he began selling news papers and candy on the trains between Port Huron and detroit.From 1862 to 1868 he worked as a roving telegrapher.He obtained a position as a night operator for Western Union telegraph company in 1868.In 1869 he decided to give up his career as a telegrapher to pursue inventing and entreprenuership.He moved to New York City and within a year he was sucessful enough to establish a workshop in Newark, N.J. During this time he produced the Edison stock printer and other printing telegraphs.In 1876 he gave up his telegraph factory and set up a research lab. in nearby Menlo Park.There with the help of highly talented asoiates he achieved his greatest sucess (the electric lamp).In 1877 he invented the phonograph.he began work on the light bulb in 1878 and demonstrated his lamp in 1879.In 1883 he acidentally discovered the "Edison effect" which later became the basis of the electron tube.He also perfected motion picture equipment.(Britannica p.370-371)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Edison executed the first of his 1,093 successful U.S. patent applications (the most by anyone ever.)on 13 October 1868, at the age of 21. Which was the Electrographic Vote-Recorder. (Internet:Edisons U.S Patents)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though Edison invented all of the inventions he did he was not a good student and Edison also had a hearing problem. (Internet:A Thousand Inventions)In August of 1931, he took a turn for the worse,

Oral vs Residential Education for the Deaf

Despite what is commonly believed by hearing people who do not understand deaf culture, most deaf children are born to hearing parents. It can be challenging to raise a deaf child, as a hearing parent. One major decision on a parent’s plate for their deaf child is the choice of a residential or oral school to enroll their child in. Even though the students will be less exposed to deaf culture, parents of deaf children should send their kids to an oral school because they graduate with a higher reading level than kids who graduate from a residential school and learning how to assimilate with the majority of the population could help further their experience in life. One major reason for the parents of a deaf child to send their kid to an oral school over a residential school is the reading level the child will graduate with. On average, deaf adults have a reading level of only third to fifth grade. People who are deaf or hard of hearing are in no way less intelligent than anyone else, but their reading ability depends on the age which their hearing diminished. Being that English is a very oral language, people who lost their hearing before the age of three would have a hareder time learning the language than otherwise. Hearing Americans learn it by hearing it and reading is taught by sounding out the word, or phonetics (ie. Hooked on Phonics). For this reason, most Americans are dependent on their hearing to pick up the English language. A higher reading level achieved by a deaf student attending an oral school accomanies the fact than an oral education gives a child increased opportunity as he or she grows older and becomes more involved in the outside, hearing world. Considering the average hearing person’s early life, first a child is born. From here, a child picks up every sound and sight continuing when he or she is entered into kindergarten. After this, comes public education through the twelth grade and from there, a kid will usually apply for high school and graduate with some sort of degree. A degree has been proved to be a key to landing a profitable job. A deaf child may have most of these same experiences, but when out looking for a job, especially in this economy, may be hindered by the communication barrier that would exist. if they attended a residential school for the deaf. On the other side of the subject, one may argue that a residential school benefits a deaf child more than an oral school because the child still has a strong connection with their deaf culture. This is not necessarily true, being that a deaf child may also learn sign language if wanted, but simply not through their oral school. Also, the concept of any deaf relatives can assist in keeping the deaf culture in the family. A residential school has some disadvantages of its own. If a hearing parent has a deaf child and sends him or her to a residential school, the parents would also need to learn sign language which, because of the age of the parents may be difficult being that it is harder to learn a language the older one is. As a second drawback, a child who is fluent in ASL and is not familiar with English will not be able to successfully be entered into mainstream public school. Entering one’s deaf child into an oral school may have its various disadvantages such as limited avaliability or a distancing from deaf culture, but considering the advantages of enrolling a child into an oral school outweighs enrolling a child into a residential school. It is plain to see that although the students will be less exposed to deaf culture, parents of deaf children should send their kids to an oral school for two main reasons. First, learning how to assimilate with the majority of the population could help further their experience in life and, importantly, they graduate with a higher reading level than kids who graduate from a residential school.

Communication with individuals who have dementia Essay

Alzheimer’s disease Short-term memory loss is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals affected with this disease may be unable to remember things that have just happened or ask the same questions repeatedly. Individuals suffering with it can also forget people this could be just forgetting their names and eventually just forgetting who they are. This itself can cause communication issues and the individual may not know who they are talking with and on top of that may repeat the same parts of the conversation over and over as they have forgotten what has already been said. Individuals may also struggle in finding the right words or can’t remember the right word for what they want to say so it can be hard to hold a conversation. If they can’t explain what they mean properly an individual with dementia may become frustrated and this can often be dismissed as agitation or aggression. Vascular Dementia With Vascular Dementia although the causes are different to Alzheimer’s a lot of the symptoms are similar. For instance they may suffer memory loss, lose things and be disorientated. All these things can cause difficulties when communicating. There can be different symptoms of vascular dementia as different areas of the brain can be affected but most include slower thinking processes. Communication often becomes slow and the individual may find it hard to find the right word or forget what they were trying to say in the first place. This is very frustrating for them. People are often tempted to finish their sentences off for them which can lead to further frustration as its usually finished wrongly and not what they wanted to say. Read more:  Understand the Role of Communication and Interactions With Individuals Who Have Dementia Dementa with Lewy Bodies (DLB) Again this does have some common symptoms with Alzheimer’s and Vascular dementia. For example memory loss and disorientation but it also has other symptoms that aren’t always found in other forms of dementia. Someone with DLB may experience visual hallucinations. This means they see things that aren’t really there. An individual experiencing hallucinations may be  extremely frightened by them and be very afraid. They are very real to the individual and should be taken seriously. It can be difficult to comfort someone with hallucinations as it can cause them a lot of distress. When the person is experiencing hallucinating it can cause communication difficulties as the person isn’t in touch with what is real and what is not as the hallucinations are very real to them. Non-verbal comfort and lots of reassurance are the best way to communicate with someone during hallucinations. Vivid dreams can also be experienced with this kind of dementia. Individuals with DLB may show different levels of alertness. There moods can change quickly from being chatty one minute to not knowing who you are the next. It is important to have flexible communication so you can respond to the individuals’ mood appropriately. An individual experiencing this form of dementia are also susceptible to falls and trips as there balance can be affected. Fronto-temporal dementia This form of dementia can be found in older people but is often found in younger people between 30 to 60. Early stage symptoms are similar to other forms of dementia. For instance communication issues such as forgetting or not understanding words or peoples’ names. There isn’t memory loss in the early stages but it seems like there is because of the communication problems. Personality changes are often common in this form of dementia. The may become extrovert when they weren’t before or vice versa, they may behaving inappropriately or lack empathy. They can behave inappropriately, for instance removing clothing in public or shouting loudly. It can seem like they are being selfish as they can lack warmth for others. The personality changes can make communication difficult. Especially for people that have known the person before they suffered with dementia. They may feel that they don’t know the person anymore and find it hard to interact with them. 1.2 Physical and mental health factors should always be considered when communicating with an individual that suffer with dementia. For instance they may have eye sight problems or not be able to hear well which can affect their ability to communicate. Hearing and vision problems should not  be over looked. Regular eye and hearing tests should be performed as an individual with dementia may not be able to communicate that there is a problem. Glasses and hearing aid batteries should be checked regularly. Someone suffering with dementia may also have problems with pain. They may find it hard to communicate what the problem is or where the pain is coming from. They may not be able to express or explain that they are in pain. Pain can cause other problems such as lack of concentration, increased memory loss, aggressive behaviour, sleeping problems and mood swings or a short temper. These are often mistaken for the persons dementia because of their lack of communication skills. It is important that people working with individuals that suffer from dementia are aware that pain could be a factor. Physical disability or illness needs to be taken into consideration. Someone who has had a stroke or has an illness like cerebral palsy may have difficulty with speech but not with memory problems. An individual with early stage dementia may understand perfectly what you are saying to them but may have difficulty communicating back. They may not be able to find the words are put the wrong words in the sentence. This can be very frustrating for them. You have to patient and let them speak without trying to finish the sentence off for them. When dealing with an individual regularly you can become familiar with the way they communicate which can make it easy for both of you. An individual suffering with dementia may experience depression or anxiety. This too can cause communication problems as it can affect how they respond to others. They may not be interested in being involved in having a conversation which can make it hard for others trying to talk to them. It can also cause reduced concentration and problems with sleeping which then can lead to more confusion. This can make communication and other forms of interactions extremely difficult. 1.3 When communicating with an individual who has sensory impairment it is important to use hand gestures, body language, facial expressions and touch. Various aids or equipment can also be used such as flash cards, pictures or sign language to help understanding. If an individual suffers from hearing loss it is important to ensure that hearing aids are fitted correctly, working properly and batteries are changed regularly. When speaking to  someone with hearing loss you need to be not too far away from them, speak clearly and don’t shout. Some individuals with hearing problems can lip read and some may be able to do sign language. Gestures and pointing to things can help and the use of flash cards could also be of use. As dementia progresses though, an individual may find it more difficult to use sign language or lip read as it becomes harder for them to remember how to do it. Glasses or contact lenses are the most common way of assisting someone who is visually impaired. You should ensure that the lenses are clean and that the individual has regular eye tests to ensure that they are wearing the right prescription glasses. An individual suffering with dementia may forge to put there glasses on so it is important to remind them to put them on. If someone has severe visual impairment you should not just suddenly begin speaking as they may not have realised you were there. Make sure that you introduce yourself when speaking so they know who it is and you don’t shock them. You may need to use touch more than what you would when speaking to someone fully sighted as they will not see facial expressions, body language and gestures. It is important to maintain good communication and interaction as some with visuals impairment suffering with dementia can find the progression of the illness very frightening. 1.4 Individuals with dementia often demonstrate problem behaviour. There are many things that may contribute to such behaviours even something as simple as an uncomfortable, loud, or stressful environment. They could be experiencing pain, or be finding it hard to communicate or carry out simple tasks or perhaps there in unfamiliar surroundings. As a carer it is important that you pick up on these kinds of situations so you can ease the discomfort of the individual quickly so as little distress is caused as possible. It is important that you remain calm yourself. Offer reassurance to the individual and be patient and relaxed. Use body language and the tone of your voice to try and calm the situation. Sometimes distraction can help, perhaps try and engage them in a different topic of conversation so they then forget that they were angry or unhappy. Sometimes carers can become stressed out or find it hard to cope with a particular individual, at these times it is best to take time out or get someone else to help you. Getting anxious or upset yourself can make their behaviour worse and it is  important not to take aggressive or problem behaviour personally. If you do find yourself becoming stressed with a situation take time out to relax. Often other individuals need to be involved when supporting an individual with dementia. These could be family and friends, carers or other professionals. For example: GP – For medical advice and health problems, help with medications and side effects Speech Therapist – To help with communication issues Social Worker – Can often provide useful background information, family history or situation Dementia Care Adviser – Offer advice and technique on ways to improve interactions Advocates – Provide information about the persons capacity and what is considered to be in there best interests and will be able to offer a view of the persons perspectives Family and friends – Can offer information about the person and tell you background information. Also may be able to offer advice about communication methods as they know the individual better 2.4 Dementia is a progressive illness and effects people suffering with it in different ways. A persons communication and interactions are most likely effected but with different levels of difficulty. People with dementia suffer different symptoms but most experience isolation due to increasing difficulty with communication. Often people assume that an individual with dementia cannot communicate and write them off if they do not get a response from them the first time instead of trying a different approach. The symptoms of dementia do often have a big impact on how a person communicates and they can often find it difficult to find the right word or repeat the same things several times. They may be confused about where they are or what time period there in which also can contribute to making communication difficult but there are different approaches that can be used. Picture cards or flash cards are a good way of finding out what an individual wants when they are unable to find the words. Also its important to watch their body language and gestures to pick up on things that they are trying to communicate. Although dementia does cause huge problems with communication it is important for care staff to support and develop new ways to get around  it. Carers and other peoples’ attitudes play a big part in the well-being of people with dementia. The best way to respond to the behaviour of an individual with dementia is by using creativity, flexibility, patience and compassion. Don’t take their behaviour personal, they have an illness that affects the way they behave. It is important to try and establish what is causing the behaviour to reduce the stress for everyone concerned. One of the following could be a factor: Medical problem, such as experiencing pain or side effects from medications – this needs to be resolved by a GP or a CPN Wandering around a lot – this is often caused by boredom or they may be trying to find something or someone. Offering regular exercise and activities can help with this Repetitive behaviour – this can be caused because they need to or like to feel busy. Give them something to do ask if they would like to help with jobs around the home make them feel important and independent. Behaviour trigger – often it can be hard to find the trigger but sometimes a more calming environment can help and distraction techniques can be used. Repetition – People with dementia often repeat the same things over and over. This can be very frustrating for carers. They may ask the same questions or do the same activity over and over again. This can be triggered by boredom or environmental factors. Try and comfort them or distract them and look out for similar behaviours or signs. Certain behaviours could indicate that they need the bathroom or that they are hungry. Incontinence – this is a common problem in people with dementia. They may not be able to find the bathroom in time and have an accident. An individual with dementia may find this very embarrassing and be upset with themselves. Be understanding and offer reassurance. This can be avoided by prompting regular trips to the toilet. Insomnia – Restlessness, agitation, disorientation and other troubling behavior in people with dementia often get worse at the end of the day and sometimes continue throughout the night. A day full of activities and discouraging daytime napping can help. With dementia trouble behaviour can simply just be part of the illness.  Carers need to be flexible with how they act to try and address any issues. 4.1  Reality orientation is about trying to keep the person suffering with dementia in the here and now by making sure the person knows who and where they are. If they become confused about things then they are corrected about anything that isn’t reality. Individuals are constantly reminded of the day, place, time and situation they are in. This approach is used as much today. Validation is part of a person centred approach. A persons confusion is accepted and carers do not tell them that their feelings are wrong or try to correct them. The approach focuses on the individuals feelings rather than what they are saying. Their expressed feelings are accepted as being valid and accepted. The idea of this approach is to build trust and increase well-being and is much more commonly used than the reality orientation approach.