Report: The BDA’s Early Years Conference in Manchester

The BDA today held their Early Years Conference in Manchester, with a range of speakers giving both personal experiences and a their learning on the subject of how deaf children can be better supported with communication and BSL.

The BDA’s Chief Executive Rebecca Mansell’s opening speech made the point that access to BSL in the early years is a postcode lottery. Remembering her own childhood, she told the audience that her own parents were told not to sign with her. She didn’t blame her parents for this, she blamed the system.

Mansell explained that many children of 14 months old now have a cochlear implant, but asked, what about before that? Pointing out that those children may have missed out on communication for 14 months. While hearing parents take their children to baby signing classes, deaf children are missing out.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester, got a round of applause for signing to the audience (below) and said: “I will ensure that we have a requirement around BSL in the early years as we continue to focus on school readiness as we come out of the pandemic.”

Burnham added: “I think the campaign BSL in our Hands is a wonderful campaign and it is becoming a universal campaign. There is no justificaction for BSL being held back in education.” Burnham pointed out that it is still the case that deaf children receive on average a grade less in a subject in their GCSE’s. “So change is most definitely needed.”

He finished with an announcement of a change in the political world, saying he wanted to “lead by example.” He made an election pledge that by the start of his next mayoral term, there will be a BSL interpreter at all meetings of the Greater Manchester combined authority. He added that he hopes that sends a signal to other authorities and parliament.

The conference was presented by Ahmed Mudawi and Dr Emma Ferguson Coleman, seen below.

In the morning there were speeches from Dr Robert Adam, Chair of Trustees, BDA, Stephanie Lotz from Platinum Sponsor, SignLive, and Dr Joseph Murray, President of the World Federation of the Deaf who spoke about recognising national sign languages rights to ensure the inclusion of Deaf people from a linguistic minority.

Dr Katie Rogers from SORD spoke about the impact of early language development, saying that professionals around the child have a duty to prevent language deprivation.”

Tilly Hawkes spoke first hand about a parent’s experience of first diagnosis (read her recent article for this site here), and Dani Sive and Catherine Drew from Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children explained what deaf children need in order to be “school ready.”

Later in the day, Saurabh Mittal also talked about a parent’s experience of first diagnosis, explaining that his son was already behind when he started school, and how his family had needed to move to be near a deaf school. Mittal said how much his family had benefited from using BSL.

Naomi Fujitani, Northern Ireland Advocacy Coordinator, BDA and Jaz Mann, Head of Community Services, BDA – discussed an independent evaluation report of the BDA Northern Ireland Family Signs at Home Programme.

Dr Joanna Hoskin and Lenka Novak of University College London talked about Language therapy in BSL, saying that professionals and families need training and support to enable deaf children to reach their language potential. They added not to assume there is a problem with the child, it might be a problem with us. They said there should be care about using language disorder terminology with children who use BSL. They said not to ‘watch and wait’ – that mediated learning opportunities help to identify deaf children’s language learning potential. They added that deaf children will learn language in a language rich environment.

Alex Gowlland, Co-Chair of the BSL Advisory Board and Craig Crowley, CEO of Action Deafness, gave reflections from the BSL Advisory Board on early years and access to BSL for families. They said that the board is developing its work plan for the next two years, including helping to develop guidance. Every meeting of the BSL Advisory Board has included discussion about the importance of early years access to BSL.

In his closing remarks, Robert Adam spoke about the future of the deaf community in 50 years time, and said that sign language should be ‘taught in the village’ by a community around the child. He also said he wants to see more deaf specialists working with families, and that he wants the teaching of the BSL GCSE to be done by deaf people.

Article and photos by Charlie Swinbourne, Editor