The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) has launched new flagship resources to help education professionals develop deaf friendly teaching techniques for effective inclusion in the classroom.
Education professionals working in early years, primary, secondary, special schools and in further education can now access simple tips through online tools, videos and booklets to help them effectively support the achievement of the deaf children that they teach.
Deaf children and young people can miss out on effective learning at school and often have lower literacy levels than other children their age.
Almost two thirds (58.9%) of deaf children are failing to achieve the government’s expected benchmark of five GCSEs at grade A* – C (inc. English and Maths), compared to just 35.8% of other children with no identified special educational need.
Deaf children can also experience difficulties around incidental learning and may struggle to pick up what others are saying which can restrict social integration with peers.
Commenting on the recently released resources, Ian Noon, Head of Policy and Research at the National Deaf Children’s Society said:
“Deafness is not a learning disability and with the right provision and encouragement from families and professionals, deaf children can develop and achieve as well as any other child. Having high expectations of deaf pupils is vital and it is important that teachers of deaf children can identify the pupil’s strengths, weaknesses and highlight any particular barriers to making progress. We hope these tools will help education professionals work better with deaf children and really support them to achieve their full potential.”
Tina Wakefield, a Teacher of the Deaf said:
“It is hugely important that teachers of deaf children and young people understand the effect deafness has on learning. We know that even mild hearing loss can have an impact and if teachers are aware of barriers they can identify targets and support strategies to address them. These resources are a really simple and accessible way to learn new teaching approaches and enable deaf children to feel fully included in all areas of their school life.”
Find the resources here: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/professional_support/our_resources/supporting.html
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pennybsl
March 22, 2016
Have seen the links, will trawl through them (CPD time!!) before providing SEN & mainstream colleagues a colourful, ‘Deaf-led’ ring binder of the resources.
Hope there would be mention of the value of d/Deaf staffing in the deaf child’s schooling?
Cathy
March 24, 2016
I sometimes wonder how on earth my generation managed to get through our schooldays?!
Back in the 60s and beyond there was absolutely nothing to support deaf children in any shape or form, yet many of us still managed to develop good literacy and numeracy skills, especially those who went onto Mary Hare.
It makes you wonder what on earth is going on when deaf children now have such low literacy and numeracy skills? I strongly suspect it is not so much to do with lack of individual support, but poor teaching all round, irrespective of “deaf friendly” staff.
The question is: how could deaf children from 50 odd years back have had better educational outcomes with no support in school whatsoever, than deaf children now who need A, B, C in resources to try and match their peers? And what is happening to CI children? Are they being left behind too? If so, this poses a massive question: if implanted children are no better off educationally, than those without implants, then what is the point of carrying out these implanted operations?!
Something, somewhere has gone badly awry, with hardly anybody aware of the intrinsic changes in Deaf eduction over the years, which means hardly anybody is going to overcome the problem.
The sad fact is: I feel British education has sadly gone down the pan and today’s deaf children appear to be going down with it against a small number of hearing children also. When all these children reach adulthood then we will have the real results!