The Guardian has a news story today about the lack of support for deaf children in mainstream schools, who are facing a lack of specialist Teachers of the Deaf.
Extract:
A report by the Consortium for Research into Deaf Education says the number of teachers of the deaf has been cut by 14% in the past seven years, at the same time as a 31% increase in the number of children requiring support.
In some areas the situation is so critical there is just one specialist teacher for every 100 students. Without intervention, researchers say the crisis is likely to worsen, with many existing staff close to retirement.
Susan Daniels, the chief executive of the National Deaf Children’s Society, said despite deafness not being a learning disability, deaf children already fell a whole grade behind their hearing friends at school. Almost 80% of deaf children attend mainstream schools with no specialist provision.
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Hartmut Teuber
January 9, 2018
The underachievement of deaf students is not one whole grade lower in comparison to hearing students as measured by standardized tests where competence of spoken language plays a dominant role, but by four grades. Dr Conrad tested 15 years old deaf school-leaving students in PHS and found them to be at the 4th grade level on the average. I believe the situation has not improved much since 1980, both in the UK and USA. Only deaf children of deaf parents and deaf children deafened after four years of age were achieving age-appropriate levels. Even hard-of-hearing children were not doing much better than profoundly deaf children who have hearing parents.
EJ
January 11, 2018
Make it easier to become a Peripatetic TOD then! I’d love to be one, not teaching but just visiting various deaf children in schools, giving advice etc. I’ve worked with various deaf children of all ages in various schools but I don’t wish to be a teacher first- I want to use my signing and knowledge!