ANNUAL REVIEW

[molcat]

Our DD attends a mainstream school with a hearing impaired unit. We have been having problems with the school and in particular the HIU. We had arranged for our daughter to move schools a few months ago but at the final hurdle she would not go- she shares an assistant with a little boy and as they are practically joined at the hip, these two children have a love-hate relationship and in the end this was the reason my DD gave for not moving.

We had our Annual Review last week and I feel I have made a terrible mistake. We did manage to conveythat we would like our daughter to remain at the school, we nolonger want her supported by the HIU and we would now like a signing Teacher of the Deaf to come from the Peripatetic service in its place. ( The HIU is an oral unit and they do not have any staff with skills in sign language).

My problem is that when we were asked did we feel that the placement was appropriate we answered yes. Is there anything we can do to have this changed to reflect the fact that yes her placement within the school remains appropriate but the support from the HIU does not.

you can try ringing your case worker at the LEA and see what they say. How old is your dd? What does her statement say about BSL, what does the ToD say, will they need the statement changed to say must have access to BSL to be able to change the placement from HIU to MS with support? The ndcs are pretty good with things like this, it's worth giving them a ring.

Blimey, molcat. I didn't realise that you still got state school special units for the deaf that didn't use BSL. That seems like such a dated system these days. I thought it was accepted that BSL can only be positive for children with severe or profound deafness.

Thanks Ninjagoose, we've been banging our heads off a brick wall for 3 years now and they will not recognise that our profoundly deaf, implanted daughter needs sign language despite the fact that she is at least 3 years behind in her english and maths. We have continually insisted that DD's understanding is extremely limited but her teacher in reception year had the nerve to assert at SENDIST that there wasn't much that our DD didn't understand in the classroom despite the fact that we had a private assessment which found that she had a 3 yr delay in both receptive and expressive language. The local EP spectacularly inflated her scores in language. We also have our suspicions that our DD is being prepared for assessments- she seemed familiar with the material on a few occasions and this is one of the reasons why I want to stop her going to the HIU-of course I would not tell them that. I am coming to the conclusion that I am wasting my time fighting. The NDCS represented us at Tribunal - they were fantastic but they themselves admit they are challenged when they come here( N. ireland). There has only been 2 Tribunals for matters relating to deaf children and neither case was successful.

wow, that's quite something! Have you considered moving, doesn't sound like you'll get any where with them. What other provision is there in other areas?

Yes EllenJane, we do in N.Ireland. The professionals here tell the parents that sign holds back spoken language development. I stated my case to the head speech therapist in charge of deaf children on Friday i.e that my DD was assessed and is within average range of intelligence and and she told me that my DD is a profoundly deaf child and as such it will be extremely difficult for her and she will never make gains in line with her peers and that that "is life"!

God, molcat. I thought that attitude had gone in the eighties! I suppose if all the staff were trained a few years ago, they'd still believe that. I'm just angry for you. It's definitely not like that here in Glos, there's a primary school with a deaf unit where they have a signing club for the hearing DC! My deaf friend sent her hearing children there especially for the inclusive vibe. Also they used the unit staff to interpret at parent's evenings etc. NI sounds a bit like it's in the dark ages. I suppose you'll just have to work with what you have if moving is impractical.

My godson is profoundly deaf (no implant) and he is in the top groups for all his subjects in a MS secondary school (except French). He has a 1:1 Sign support worker who interprets in all lessons. How dare they write off your DD?

Our system over here is generally the same in every area Ninjagoose. It is marginally better in the east but there are no guarantees. I met a parent at the weekend who has a child in Nursery who is due to move on to reception year. (This child is also deaf with cochlear implant). The professionals have advised that the child should be held back as they did with my DD. I explained to the parent that if her child transfers now, then she will get the support she needs because if she waits the profs will say that she has benefitted from an extra year in Nursery and has made XYZ progress and the child get less support throughout her primary years than if she transfers now. This is common practice with our children as we learned the hard way.

Honestly - in your shoes I'd be trying to move to the mainland!

My son is about to start at a school with a deaf unit that not only uses sign language but teaches all the kids in mainstream at the school to use it too. (One of the reasons the school has qualms about taking my asd/adhd? lad).

I know emigrating seems drastic but if this is their attitude to something sooo basic how are you expected to raise her into an independent adult? Do they actually think in their heart of hearts she can is capable of acheiving academically? If they don't you are flogging a deaf horse on way too many levels. Their attitude is stuck in the dark ages and having had experience of how deaf adults can command the top jobs with the right education/good self esteem I find this hard to sit back and say nothing.

Yes Bochead, I agree and this is something which we have talked about. It is a very scary situation which we are in. At the last annual review the TOD reported that DD was working to the best of her ability and when we pointed out that DD had been assessed as being of at least average ability, the next thing we knew they had put her on the list for an ed psych assessment ( as you say to write her off). We only found this out because we had adopted the help of a dispute and resolution service to get some answers. That is great to hear that your nephew is doing so well EllenJane.

Sorry EllenJane, I meant your Godson, not nephew!

The info about my godson was only to let you know that they are so wrong about your DD. Of course he struggles socially in a MS school with no other deaf children, so that's maybe not the best solution, but there is no reason why deaf children can't achieve academically and socially in the right environment. I know it's easy for us to say as I don't know your situation, but I'd be very tempted to find work somewhere with more 21st C provision. Glos doesn't have a good secondary deaf unit as it's located in a struggling school, but there must be better provision than you are getting.

so they just hold deaf children back for a year automatically!!!! It's a different situation if there are other needs involved but jeez!! Here the primary and secondary bases use total communication, it's not the best LEA but suddenly I'm feeling a little appreciation.

molcat

These people you write off are truly in the dark ages.

I would if at all possible move to the mainland even despite the many obstacles that such a thing would throw up. What you are getting currently is a second rate service whereby your DD is being failed by the very people who are supposed to be helping her. They're patently not interested in getting her to reach her full potential; they're already writing her off.

I think I would agree with the other posters, there is so much research and evidnce from the last 20+ years that signing does not damage speech development and giving Deaf kids commuication is what is important, what allows them to achieve to their full potential. I'm really sorry this out dated crap is still being spouted by professionals who should know better !

Thanks a million for all your advice and support. I just pray we don't have to go through another Tribunal- no doubt they would arrive again with their Barrister and Solicitor which probably would go some way to paying a classroom assistants wage to support my daughter in Primary School.