Skills for the Job: Working with deaf children

How common is deafness in children?
There are more than 45,000 deaf children and young people in the UK and an estimated 840 babies are born each year with a permanent, significant hearing loss. Half of these remain undiagnosed at 18 months, and a quarter by the age of three and a half. Also, around 80 per cent of children under eight experience temporary deafness caused by glue ear. The overwhelming majority of deaf children are from families with no prior experience of deafness, so it is vital that support is available for families as well
as children.

What types of deafness are there?
Few children are totally deaf, with most able to hear some frequencies at certain volumes. There are three types of deafness, each with different causes and implications. Conductive deafness is the most common type and means that sound cannot pass efficiently through the outer and middle ear to the cochlea (inner ear) and auditory nerve. Sensori-neural deafness, or nerve deafness, usually means that the cochlea is not processing the sound effectively. There is also mixed deafness, where a child has a mixture of conductive and nerve deafness.

What problems do deaf children face?
Every child is different and so the problems they face vary. Deafness can cause difficulty communicating and this can place children who are deaf at risk of physical and social isolation, low self-esteem, and can result in them falling behind in school. Although deafness is not a learning disability, 60 per cent of deaf children fail to get five GCSE grades at A*-C, including English and maths, compared to 30 per cent of other children. In many cases, this is because deaf children simply do not receive the right support in school or