The Silent child

[Puffycat]

I’ve just watched this award winning short film and am in bits!
My DH said ‘oh you’ll enjoy it, it’s uplifting ‘
Uplifting my arse!
I’m so cross at the stupid parents. Surely the first thing you do when you have a deaf child is learn sign language!
The bit at the end when Libby signs ‘I love you’ to her therapist finished me off!
I just hope it raised awareness

I’ve found this thread really interesting. As a teacher, I’ve only taught one child with significant hearing loss. I had to wear a microphone that she picked up sound from. I do know she sometimes found the noise of the class overwhelming through it and I had to remember to turn it off when speaking to others. She lip read very well too.
There was a profoundly deaf man on my university course and he had a signer for most lectures. It sounds like this might not be the norm.
I am interested in people saying it should be taught in schools. Theoretically it’s a great idea. In reality I think there are many issues. Teaching languages is hard (I’m not a language teacher), students find it difficult and are unmotivated. Recruiting good teachers is hard. Finding and training enough sign teachers for all the schools in the country would be difficult and expensive; convincing students and parents that they should be learning sign could be harder still.

Deaf children are completely different to and significantly more disadvantaged than EAL pupils. My dd's hearing won't improve, their English can.

Lot of shit on here about "Deaf kids I have known." Working with one is nothing like having one. I did not associate with the mother at all, but her attitude was very common to many of my peer group of hearing parents of profoundly Deaf children. And a CI is not a fucking miracle cure.

Haven't watched it but one of my dc had severe glue ear that was not rectified even after having vents inserted twice. At 3 her speech was so delayed she was referred to a specialist SLT to learn Makaton which we did as a family. I had to go to a class to learn words and when I enquired about further words that i wanted for home was told that you had to buy the words online! It was utterly shocking how little Makaton provision was given for families.

@Lothlorien1 from one mum of a deaf child to another... you're amazing

@Bettyfood my Daughter is profoundly deaf and passed the newborn screen. we took her to the audiologists at about 9 months and didn't get a diagnosis until 13 months, but it could have easily been a lot longer, and I've chatted to lots of parents whose concerns have been dismissed several times, and they've not got a diagnosis for their child for several more months if not years. Profoundly deaf children, especially very young ones are notoriously difficult to test, and it depends on the skill of the audiologist. Our audiologist was convinced my dd could hear, but she was just responding to other cues in the testing process (the tester moving at their computer to play the tones, the timing between tones, etc). Deaf children really can trick you into thinking they can hear from a young age because they come up with coping strategies. For example, they won't hear a door opening and someone entering a room, but they'll feel the breeze of the door opening and turn around. They'll feel vibration of steps on the floor, but they won't hear the steps. And so on and so on. It sounds daft but it can be very difficult to tell a child is deaf, especially if you have no reason to expect it as no family history and they passed the newborn screen. Getting the more complex and definitive tests at audiologists can be a fight.

To all those expressing an interest in learning sign- it's a wonderful language, such good fun to learn.

Oh it really annoys me. His t.o.t.d said at the last visit it wasn't used and not charged. She said she's glad she has this test to back it up now and can show the teacher it on paper and how important it is. I worry about going through all this again with my youngest

This is probably an unanswerable question, but why on earth is BSL not taught as a language option in schools?

At DDs secondary school they have a one hour lesson once a week called 'Enrichment'. They can do extra-curricular lessons that don't count for exams or whatever, just to learn a skill. They are mostly unusual sports (Trampolining, Archery, Zumba) taught by teachers with an interest.

This year, solely because I'd come home raving about 'Singalong' for our SEND children, DD has chosen Signing. I don't think it's BSL but she has learnt loads since Sep..and weirdly, she unconsciously does signs as we are chatting.

I think it's fab, and wish more schools did similar.

Camilla - Just how and on earth can children who can’t speak English be more isolated than deaf children? I have no experience of deafness (unless counting ds1 and 2’s selective hearing!) whatsover but common sense alone will dictate that at least they can speak a language, they can hear! And they can learn. Deaf children can’t and will never do either.

they can speak a language, they can hear! And they can learn. Deaf children can’t and will never do either. just to point out that deafness isn't a learning disability! Deaf children can and will learn, with appropriate support! Agree with you re social isolation.

Camiila - you come across as shockingly ignorant.

Scribes and translators??? That's not what these professionals are called.

Its likely they were actually TAs or CSW (Communication SUpport Workers) with minimal BSL skills - trained and fully qualified BSL interpreters do not tend to work in education (mainly due to funding).

You say they are not isolated - how DO you know?! Not being able to hear or speak well really does cut you off from people and society unless you have full support in place.

It's possible though unlikely Camiila is correct about a certain school in London - London has the huge advantage of lots of potential qualified employees within commuting distance, in a way that other places don't (possible exceptions of Wolverhampton and Bristol).

It's certainly not common.
Radio aids etc going unmaintained and unused is a common problem - I have to admit I rarely use mine as its such a bugger to set up and only works in certain kinds of meetings, but also they can be terrifying for kids - sound goes direct from teacher into child's head, teacher suddenly shouts... My friend used to get into trouble at secondary for not using it but her parents supported her, especially as the teachers weren't doing things like writing topics or key vocabulary on the board, nor providing reading material in advance, nor, most importantly, dealing with bullying.

More deaf awareness would be great. A key point is the effect of background noise and its much more of a problem with hearing loss. Another is how few people use 'pure' BSL, as so many older people and youth influenced by texting etc use much more SSE, and how regional BSL is (which I think was the key point that scuppered the GCSE). And BSL is rather like Welsh in that people discussing very technical stuff tend to use English. I had a terrible AtW assessment once where the assessor's only suggestion was I should learn more BSL. For physical reasons that would be hard, it wouldn't help for the five or so years before I was good enough to use a terp, but most importantly the assessor's terp pointed out there were probably no terps who could interpret my job for me. So I use speech-to-text reporters.

Who are a rare and underused resource for people who are deafened or deaf and have good English. I'm sure a STTR based in hospitals to ensure elderly and other deafened people understood their consultations and could take a transcript home would be a good use of money.

I'm sure my PIP assessment was decided when they said surely with STTRs I wouldn't have a communication problem and I handed them a file of all the calls my partner had had to make, the emails confirming Atos only offered BSL, and emails cc'd to my MP explaining the Equality Act in words of one syllable. No, getting STTR a few times a year is not a magic solution.

I am the parent of two deaf children who became deaf at 2 and 4, yes it’s rare but it does happen, they were fully hearing up until then.

We don’t sign, we have considered it and I have discussed it as an option with my now 8 year old, but she would rather lip read and rely on her hearing aids and radio aid. I believe we have made that is the right decision for each of our children but we revisit it all the time.

This film is raising awareness which is great and getting people to ask questions. This thread is also exposing some depressing misconceptions about hearing loss but hopefully those people are being re-educated by other posters.

Hearing impairment is exhausting, the extra effort that a deaf child has to put in to concentrating to hear and focus on the teacher through the background noice in a classroom is exhausting.

Hearing loss is not a learning difficulty

Posted too soon!

It’s not a learning difficulty but it does make it harder to participate in learning. I can’t te you the number of times I have had to explain that to people.

It’s hard enough for any child to get the additional support they need in education these days but particularly difficult for a deaf child because it’s hardr to pin point the need and did I mention it’s not a learning difficulty!

Whilst it’s great that this film is raising awareness please don’t judge, you have no idea of the a child and families circumstances, the fights they have fought and will continue to fight for just the basics of support that their child needs.

There is evidence that language deprivation (which is what happens if a child does not learn language, before he/she turns five - whether its BSL or a spoken language) is more likely to result in cognitive development and therefore learning issues.

*cognitive development delays

Nomoresphag - I meant deaf children will never learn to hear.

I was in tears.

And to add to my previous post - Speak. I don’t believe deaf children can learn to speak? Pls correct me if I’m wrong. I didn’t say they can’t learn anything, of course they can. But they are excluded from hearing and speaking.

@Camiila
I agree that is hugely over simplified. But for someone that has no experience of cochlear implants it's a start, it's a way to explain why your deaf child who hears on one of those key frequencies and nothing else doesn't have them even though hearing aids dont work.

It doesn't "suck" that children with any hearing are not given implants, it is a decision made in the best interests of the child I'm sorry, but it does suck. It sucks when your child does not have enough residual hearing to access speech sounds even with hearing aids but the nice guidelines say they have "too much" to qualify for cochlear implants. Where is that child left? Because I can assure you it is not a pleasant place for either the child or the parents.
It sucks that when that child then suffers a subsequent loss you pray for it to bottom out. And as a parent you have to wait for months whilst it does. It sucks to experience a 7yo having a breakdown because they can no longer hear the one or two things that they could hear. Explain how that is in that "child's best interests."

Because whilst all of this is going on, you also have the battles with the LA for the support that is needed in School, in a county that is aural, in a county that does not support the use of BSL, because your dc having hearing aids mean that they can hear, that they are no longer deaf, that they don't need BSL in order to communicate. Where there is no support to learn BSL, and even when you do there are no LSAs with experience of using BSL, and the Teachers of the Deaf refuse to acknowledge that your child signs.
And the only way to get the support that you child needs is to move 100-200miles.

So why exactly does it not suck? Because I can assure you it sucks!

trala some, not all, can learn to listen and hear with technology like ci and ha though. For example my daughter is profoundly deaf but she can hear, not through her ears, but through her cochlear implants. She's still deaf and not "fixed", but they are a tool that do give her a sense of hearing (which she did have to learn to use and interpret). I'm not trying to be contrary! Totally agree with you re social isolation, especially in children without hearing aids or ci. It's heartbreaking to see.

trala x post! Actually deaf people can learn to speak even without hearing. It is obviously difficult but almost always, I've been told, they will learn to speak. This video i think it's really good in explaining m.youtube.com/watch?v=VXiS2gQ-w3M sorry if link doesn't work, I'm out and about at the mo!

trala x post! Actually deaf people can learn to speak even without hearing. It is obviously difficult but almost always, I've been told, they will learn to speak.

It depends on what you mean by "speak". If you mean, can produce sound through the mouth - then yes, deaf people can do that, they don't need to be "taught".

But if you mean, can learn to articulate intelligible speech, then no, it's not the case that all, or nearly all, deaf people can do that.

One of the criticisms I often hear from Deaf people is that so much time was wasted on speech therapy sessions at school to the detriment of subjects like maths and English. They were pulled out of subject classes for speech therapy, prevented from signing, and ultimately left school with poor/no qualifications and unintelligible speech. They feel robbed of their education.

Well I stand corrected! . But I still can’t pair this with a child who just can’t speak English.

Does anyone know what the percentage number of children in the U.K with deafness is? I’m asking because i never seem to meet any. But then again, I probably don’t go to places they go?

I would love a world where my dc could have a diverse group of friends by ability as well as ethnicity etc. I think it would be so enriching for everyone.

@TRALALALALALALALALAAA over 45000 deaf children living in the UK according to the NDCS.

To be honest you wouldn't know them if you passed them in the street.