This page describes the support available to schools and settings to support the needs of children and young people with hearing loss or who are Deaf.
Identification: Children who are born with a hearing loss will be identified through newborn hearing screen and referred to a teacher of the Deaf at birth. They will then receive ongoing specialist interventions from the Hearing Team. If a child acquires a hearing loss after birth, a referral for testing can be made through the GP. Once a diagnosis is made the Hearing team receive a referral from the audiology department and a teacher of the Deaf is allocated.
Access to Specialist Support: Babies, children and young people with a diagnosed hearing loss significant enough to be prescribed hearing aids should be referred to the Hearing Team. These referrals are commonly made by the hospital but occasionally when a child has recently moved into a new area these children may be missed. In this situation we welcome referrals by settings and schools.
Within North Yorkshire we have:
- Teachers of the Deaf
- Teacher for children who have a multi-sensory impairment
- Sensory specialist practitioners
- An assistive technologist
- A sensory social worker
How the Hearing Team work in Homes, Settings and Schools.
The frequency of visits by the Hearing Team is determined by an assessment of the needs of the individual based upon their hearing loss, the impact of their hearing loss and the support the school, home or setting may require to ensure the child has access to learning.
Support from the Hearing Team may involve:
- Advising on equipment to enable children to hear in school where hearing through their hearing aids is not sufficient.
- Delivering training relating to the impact of the hearing impairment and how schools and settings can minimise the impact of this on learning.
- Modelling and delivering targeted specialised interventions.
- Carrying out assessments and devising plans to support development.
- Supporting with transitions to new settings
The Hearing Team are also able to give schools and settings generalised anonymised advice pre referral. This would be via phone or email. This support is in line with the SEN Code of Practice 2014. In this instance no personal details of a child or young person will be shared- contact NYSENDHubs@northyorks.gov.uk
In addition to support from the Hearing team other professionals or agencies may be involved in supporting a child or young person- the SEND hubs will allocate a keyworker who will coordinate this support and draw in other professionals if needed.
How Do I make a Request to the Service?
All requests for involvement from the Hearing Team should be made on the SEND hubs referral form
School/setting responsibilities/Quality First teaching
Measures that make a learning environment accessible for a hearing impaired child will also benefit other children within the setting and are often part of teacher’s best practice.
They include:
- Ensuring background noise is kept to a minimum (both unnecessary chatter and environmental sounds such as noisy convector heaters).
- Having well organised lessons with visual information in addition to oral information. So that a changes of topic can be signalled by a key word or picture, to cue in a child who may not be able to hear.
- The teacher says the child’s name prior to speaking to them so they have time to tune in to what is being said.
- The Teacher repeating contributions from other children in order to give the hearing impaired child opportunity to hear and know what is going on in the wider classroom.
- Vocabulary being taught and reinforced as due to deaf children hearing less they commonly have gaps both in their vocabulary and world knowledge.
- Positioning the child at the front of the classroom so they can hear their teacher better and see their teachers lip patterns.
- Using break out rooms for group work so they can hear their peers free from background noise.
- Access to a quiet distraction free space to listen and concentrate free from background noise.
- Creating an inclusive environment that celebrates differences and challenges discrimination. As children with a hearing loss can often feel isolated if they are the only child with hearing aids in a school.
References /links to associated information
SEN Code of Practice - Statutory Guidance relating to SEN (including SEMH)
National Deaf Children’s Society
British Association of Teachers of the Deaf
National Sensory Impairment Partnership
Supporting Children with a Hearing Impairment During COVID: https://youtu.be/Qi3CuUuUx4g
Contact for more information
