Signs For Change: Why early and effective support is key for deaf children

This timely programme highlights the rich diversity of deafness and explores what it is like to grow up deaf in the UK today. It also, importantly, calls for early and effective support for all deaf children so they can reach their full potential.

Early and effective support is a key focus for us at Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) – a UK-wide charity that wants all deaf babies and children to have the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers. All deaf children, whether they use spoken language, sign language or both, need access to early and effective support.

As Rose highlights in the programme, there is certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to providing support for deaf children and their families in the UK. What is of crucial importance is that all deaf children get the best start in life and thrive.

Access to early intervention and support needs to be available through publicly funded services so families can make informed choices about communication approaches and have the option to access them in their local area, close to home.

It is also vital that there are adequate numbers of specialist workers, such as speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf, to provide this support in the early years. The #SENDInTheSpecialists coalition made up of more than 120 organisations, of which AVUK are proud to be a part of, are championing and campaigning for this.

I was delighted to welcome Rose to AVUK’s centre in Bermondsey, London, earlier this year to explain more about how we are using the evidence-based Auditory Verbal therapy to support deaf children, whose families want them to learn to listen and talk, to maximise their hearing technology and develop their listening skills and develop spoken language. It is one of the options for deaf children.

I showed Rose Lola’s story. Through Auditory Verbal therapy, delivered by our family programme, Lola learnt how to process the sound she received through her cochlear implants, learning to listen and talk. Now Lola can speak English, is fluent in French and is learning Spanish.

[1] When @RoseAylingEllis met Lola💜After seeing Lola’s journey learning to listen and speak on video as part of #SignsForChange, Rose got to meet Lola in person in Sheffield. Lola is a big fan of @bbcstrictly 💃🕺 pic.twitter.com/mxy8t8F8XV

— Auditory Verbal UK (@AuditoryVerbal) June 28, 2023

As a highly specialised speech and language therapist and Auditory Verbal therapist, I support and coach parents and caregivers with tools and strategies to continually develop their child’s spoken language through everyday activities. Our latest analysis shows that around 80 per cent of deaf children, like Lola, who spend at least two years on an Auditory Verbal therapy programme achieve the same level of spoken language as their hearing peers. Yet this early support, like other support, is not widely available through publicly funded services.

Many deaf children in the UK, as Rose highlighted, currently face a lifetime of disadvantage with the prospect of lower academic achievement, lower employment, and are at higher risk of poor mental health, bullying and social exclusion. But this shouldn’t be the case. For children who are born deaf, especially into hearing families with no experience of deafness, skilled early support is vital if they are to develop their language and communication skills. All children have the right to develop language and communication so that they can achieve their potential in life. As Rose says, ‘Some of us want to sign, some of us don’t and some of us want to do both. But give us the choice’. 

By ensuring deaf children have access to support during those vital early years we can significantly reduce the current disadvantages and transform outcomes for deaf children and adults across the UK.

Raising awareness and understanding of what deaf children can achieve is so important. Congratulations to Rose and everyone involved in making Signs For Change, for challenging perceptions, and calling for action so all deaf children and young people can achieve their potential and flourish.

Noel Kenely, is a senior Auditory Verbal therapist at charity Auditory Verbal UK