Children from birth to 4 years
Support for your child
As Specialist Teachers we will offer support at home or in your child's preschool or nursery. We aim to:
- help your family understand hearing loss and what that means for your child
- improve your child's language development
- show parents and carers communication techniques
- consider next steps for your child
- monitor your child's journey
We will do this by:
- learning through play
- providing resources and discussing equipment needs
- assessing how your child is using their hearing
- visiting with other services such as Portage, Speech and Language Therapists or Health Visitors
- teaching early signs from British Sign Language (BSL) and baby signing at home with Early Years Deaf Instructors
- supporting you when applying for Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- visiting pre-school settings with you and support the transition
- signposting links with the Deaf Community
Support for the preschool or nursery
We will also support the preschool or nursery by:
- supporting with requesting an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- multi-agency working with Team Around the Child (TAC) meetings or similar
- supporting the transition to school
- staff training, adaptations and recommending resources
- supporting with accessing Special Educational Needs (SEN) funding
Deaf Instructors
We also have Deaf Instructors who:
- offer taster signing sessions with a Deaf Instructor
- offer a series of 10 sessions with a Deaf Instructor to learn signs that will be useful with babies and little ones
- work with the pre-school and school to introduce useful school based signs as your child starts with the setting
- sign-post to other organisation and groups within the Deaf Community
- offer a role model of a Deaf adult to families, children and young people