Juliet England: Meet the mum fighting for radio aids for her deaf son

When 35-year-old single mum Sophie Anastasiou from Leyton, east London, learned of her five-year-old son Levindinos’s hearing loss, she says she found the news devastating.

“During my pregnancy, I never thought my son could have additional needs or require extra support. But his left ear failed the neonatal hearing screening. So they carried out further tests and he was diagnosed.”

Interestingly, Anastasiou’s own hearing problems were only officially diagnosed after she had Levindinos. Hearing tests at Specasvers and online confirmed a mild hearing loss. The mum-of-one, who works at her sister and brother-in-law’s London restaurant and also has her own business interests, has been referred to a local audiology department.

“I now know why I faced so many obstacles and struggles growing up and at work – and I didn’t want history to repeat itself.

“It also turned out that Levindinos’s dad used hearing aids when he was younger, so my son’s loss is inherited. I wanted to make sure he didn’t have the same experiences I had. If my hearing had been tested when I was younger, that would have prevented many problems. Not having the right technology or support during most of my time growing up, didn’t do me any favours.

“But many of the challenges can be overcome by technology costing just £350 in the form of radio hearing aids. It’s a lot cheaper than the alternative, and the life skills and opportunities children who have been given access to this equipment enjoy are immense.”

Immediately after the diagnosis, Anastasiou knew she wanted to get her son all the support he needed at nursery and at school, to support him at home, and when they were out and about.

At Levindinos’s first nursery in Newham, east London, she didn’t know radio aids existed, and says getting him into the place each morning was a struggle.

But another nursery run by the Lloyds Park Centre, gave the child more SEN help. There was constant support, too, from the local audiology team, with staff trained to support Levindinos on a day-to-day basis.

This summer, he completed Reception year at Hillyfield on the Hill primary school, Walthamstow. Anastasiou says the school has been broadly sympathetic, and that Levindinos has his own Listening Champion, a teacher who offers day-to-day support and ensures radio aids are connected each morning, ready for class.

“Levindinos is now doing amazingly in literacy and maths. The radio aid he has at school is government funded, and was given to the school by audiology.

“Initially, we were allowed to bring the radio aids home and immediately Levindinos was more focused and could concentrate better. He’d get down to homework more quickly.

“But then we were then told the radio aids were only funded for school use, as this is the only place they’re insured. So, three months later we bought radio aids for home online. There was no funding, but we bought two sets for home because Levindinos relies on them so much to socialise.

“With them, he is more able to converse a lot more easily with me and others and feels more confident and at ease – to the extent that he wants a lead role in his next class show! They mean he’s just as able as any child. With them, he can cycle with his friends ahead of me, without having to lag behind so I can support him. The radio aids have a significant impact on his relationship with others.

“They also help me to get him from A to B because otherwise it’s explaining to him where we need to go next and why we can’t stay longer somewhere. Without the radio aids, we wouldn’t be able to get around as quickly. It’s much harder managing my work schedule and supporting Levindinos without them.”

Levindinos uses the radio aids for academic work, and for music – he is a keen songwriter.

He has standard hearing aids too, and the receivers for the radio aid attach to the bottom of each hearing aid. It is then possible to connect to the transmitter, simply by holding the transmitter near to the receiver and pressing down the button.

(The radio aids are two parts – the child wears a receiver with their hearing aid and the person they want to hear wears a transmitter, filtering out background noise.)

“Funding radio aids for home use is so important because a child with a hearing loss’s future prospects improve dramatically. It opens up opportunities for so many children instead of leaving them behind to struggle, constantly playing catch-up!

“I don’t even really believe this is about a lack of money, it’s about not understanding the importance of this equipment for home use and the positive ripple effect it will have on everyone.”

Anastasiou has become vocal in the campaign for government funding for this equipment, adding her voice to the NDCS drive. She has appeared on national TV and articles have been published in dozens of local newspapers across the country, and online.

The NDCS’s Jo Campion told the BBC: “”Thousands of deaf children are thrown into a lottery, where their chances of having a radio aid at home are based on their postcode, not their needs. It’s a tragic waste of potential and it’s deeply unfair.

“Radio aids boost a child’s chances of picking up language, reduce background noise and help in situations where face-to-face conversations are difficult, like playing outside or in the car.”

Juliet England is a freelance writer with a severe hearing loss.