Deaf teenagers excluded from conversations
Lauren Higgs
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Deaf teenagers are being left out of conversations because other young people don't know how to talk to them, the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) has warned.
Research undertaken by the charity found that more than three-quarters of teenagers have no idea of how to communicate with a deaf classmate, even though the majority of the UK’s 45,000 deaf children go to mainstream schools.
The survey of 1,000 UK teenagers also found that 27 per cent would "probably not" make the effort to talk to a deaf young person of their own age – despite the fact that two-thirds said making new friends was important to them.
Meanwhile, 49 per cent said they would be unlikely to talk to a deaf person because they fear they wouldn’t be understood.
Lucy Read, head of children and youth participation at NDCS, warned that deaf teenagers are missing out on conversations, activities and opportunities to make new friends, which can undermine their self-esteem.
The charity is launching a campaign to combat deaf teenagers’ isolation, called Look, Smile, Chat. It is designed to educate hearing teenagers about the simple steps they can take to better communicate with deaf people their age.
“For most young people, making friends is a really important part of their school lives and it shouldn’t be any different for deaf teenagers,” Read said.
“If more teenagers know how easy it is to make sure their deaf classmates are part of the conversation, it will make a huge different to deaf young people all over the UK.”
She added: “We need professionals working with deaf children or schools to help us spread the word about the simple things teenagers can do – like turning to face their deaf classmates when they chat – to make sure deaf young people are never left out.
"We have produced lots of new resources to make this easy for schools to take part, all of which are available for free on our website.”
Scott, 16, from Shropshire, is moderately deaf. He said: “I often feel left out of conversations. If I mishear a joke and ask what was said, people normally just say ‘I’ll tell you later’.
"This makes me feel excluded and stupid. It’s not hard to include deaf teenagers in conversations but it makes a big difference to us if we are.”
