Assessments by the Hearing Loss team

We assess the support your child's or young person's needs to access learning. We monitor how they are using their hearing. We don’t assess a child’s level of hearing loss.

We can only offer advice for children who have been referred to us by an Audiology department.

Some children require advice only support via a one-off consultation, where we share resources and signposting with parents/carers and the child’s setting.

For most children, we will carry out an assessment where we do assessments involving tests as well as observing the child playing or learning and talking to parents, carers and those who work with the child.

What happens at an assessment icon

Assessments

We carry out a speech discrimination test on all children on our caseload where appropriate. We use a Parrot machine which will speak words with various level of background noise. This is usually done annually.

We may carry out a language and communication test every year. These are standardised tests and help to indicate how well your child’s language and communication is developing.

Observations and visits icon

Observations and visits

The package of support we provide may include a one-off consultation, short-term intervention or longer-term involvement. The frequency of our visits and any future assessments will depend on the needs of your child. Most children are seen more often while we ensure appropriate support is in place. Our involvement will then reduce but can resume if needs increase or when your child is due to transition to a new placement.

If they are pre-school age we visit at home and at pre-school. School-age children are visited at school.

Where assessments take place icon

Where the assessment takes place

We will assess young children at home or at their preschool. When your child is of school age we visit and carry out our tests at school.

Sharing your assessment information icon

Sharing your assessment information

For children who meet our criteria for short or long-term involvement, we will write a report of your child which will include the results of our tests. Reports are done as appropriate while they are actively receiving short-term or long-term STA support.

An Audiology department will test your child’s hearing. They will write a report and send it to us. We will include this information in our report.