Do you suspect your child has hearing loss and needs help?

If your child has been identified with hearing loss, it’s important to know that schools are required by law (Equality Act 2010) to make reasonable adjustments so that children with hearing loss are not at a disadvantage compared to their peers. Waiting until a child falls behind to put adjustments to support them in place is not acceptable. Schools must be proactive in providing a fully inclusive environment to support deaf children. 
Here are some ways that school can and should be helping your deaf child:

• if hearing aids and radio aids are used, they need to be working and checked by a named, trained person to ensure they are working well
• ensure a good listening environment where all children can hear and learn. This would include: closing the door and windows to outside noise; having soft furnishings, carpets and shutting blinds; turning off music which is not part of the lesson; having groups positioned at great distance to each other; and asking all children to work quietly
• position the deaf child near the person speaking, get their attention and face them. It is better to sit directly in front of a deaf child or at right angles to them. Deaf children might not be able to see your face clearly if you sit next to them- hearing aids work best up to 2m. A child sitting at distance to whoever is speaking will not hear them as clearly as everyone else. Deaf children need to know someone is talking so they can actively listen and lipread. If they do not know someone is talking they will not know to look and listen. The deaf child may know the best place to sit- ask them
• position the deaf child with their back to the window so light illuminates the teacher’s face, or shut the blinds. Deaf children cannot lip read and follow conversations if they have to squint to look at the person talking. Lip reading is incredibly difficult and tiring because many speech sounds look the same for example- p, b and m, t and d, k and g 
• use visual prompts; for example, real objects, signs, gestures, pictures and notes. Many words sound very similar and can cause great confusion, including pat, mat, bat, hat, cat and sat. Visual prompts can also help with developing vocabulary, spellings and understanding concepts
• check information has been heard and understood - ask them to repeat the information; don’t just ask if they have understood
• give additional time for deaf children to look and listen. Deaf children can not look at the person talking and at the thing they are talking about at the same time like hearing children can. They need time to keep up. This makes listening and concentrating very tiring – regardless of age. Following in group reading is particularly difficult
• write all homework and tasks on the board well before the end of the lesson. Deaf children often get very confused and upset about homework. This is often because they cannot hear a verbal explanation at the end of the lesson while it is noisy and everyone is packing away. Homework must be written on the board and everyone’s attention drawn to it
• let deaf children know it is ok to say if they cannot hear, without fear of being told off – then do something about it. This is so strategies can be put in place to enable them to hear. The school and deaf child may need to agree how this will be done.
• let the deaf child know it is ok to tell someone there is a problem with their equipment. Problems with equipment must be acted on immediately. Without working hearing aids, deaf children will not be able to hear and take part in lessons. It is not good enough to say a battery can be changed at the end of the lesson or at break time. Check in with the pupil to make sure things are ok
• examination access arrangements should be applied to all assessments from early years through to the end of schooling. For deaf children to access examinations, assessments and test tasks, they will require a quiet good listening environment and possibly additional time to process. Some examinations may require a live speaker as deaf children cannot hear and follow a recorded voice. National examinations access arrangements must be based on ‘normal ways of working’ for deaf children – these must be well established and used on a day to day basis
• ensuring deaf awareness training for all staff is in place; teaching, nonteaching and supervising. Deaf children are as cognitively able as hearing children. Greater understanding of the condition, knowledge and use of specialist equipment along with specific classroom strategies will allow deaf children to achieve equally as their peers