Deaf children "being failed by local authorities" full story

Deaf children 'being failed by local authorities'

The report says deaf children are at risk of "less than optimum outcomes" Almost two-thirds of local authorities in England are failing deaf children and their families, research suggests. The University of Manchester study of 57 authorities found 60% did not view deaf children as "children in need", despite being defined as such in law. The report, for the National Deaf Children's Society, said deaf children were 3.4 times more likely to be abused and 40% had mental health problems. It raised major concern over deaf children's protection, the NDCS said. Expertise The research found that only about a third of local authorities had specialist teams or arrangements with designated responsibility for deaf children and their families. This research shows widespread lack of awareness among social care services of deaf children's needs Brian Gale, National Deaf Children's Society Where there were "children's disability teams", they were unlikely to have any specialist expertise in this area. "The lack of specialist knowledge and expertise was significant because it demonstrably hampered teams from being able appropriately to recognise the seriousness of a presenting problem when it concerned a deaf child," the report said. Four authorities were found to have no designated services arrangements at all for deaf children and their families. And in 46% of the authorities assessed, there were no qualified social workers who worked with deaf children and their families either as part or whole of their job remit. 'Optimum outcomes' More than 50% said they had no formal referral arrangements between social work and education professionals, and nearly 45% said they had no formal referral arrangements between social work and health professionals. Only 37% of local authorities surveyed showed evidence of co-working arrangements between child protection teams and specialist social workers, and 18% described a situation in which there was no co-working at all. "There is clear evidence, on a widespread basis, of poor integrated children's services arrangements in respect of deaf children and their families," the report said. The report said the findings were of concern because deaf children were at "particular risk of a range of less than optimum outcomes". "They are 3.4 times more likely than hearing children to experience abuse; 40% will experience mental health problems in childhood; educational attainments lag significantly behind national averages. "Deaf children, whether using spoken or signed language, face significant challenges in achieving normative linguistic, cognitive and psychosocial development." Child protection NDCS policy and campaigns director Brian Gale said the findings raised serious concerns about the protection of deaf children. "This research shows widespread lack of awareness among social care services of deaf children's needs. In addition to the increased risk of abuse, 40% of deaf children will experience mental health problems. "It is vital that local safeguarding children boards take heed of this research and improve their child protection arrangements for deaf children before it is too late." Children's Minister Delyth Morgan said: "We are committed to transforming and improving services and support available to disabled children and their families, and are investing over three-quarters of a billion pounds from 2008 to 2011 through the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme. "We know that disabled children are more vulnerable and need more specialist care which is why last year we published new guidance to help safeguard disabled children. "This recommends that all those working with deaf children, including social workers should be trained in deaf awareness and disability equality." Ann Baxter, a spokeswoman for the Association of Directors of Children's Services said: "Every child, whether they have a disability or not, who may require significant support over and above the services provided to all children, should receive an assessment of their needs and receive a package of services that meets those needs. "Universal services, such as schools, will also strive to be flexible enough to accommodate particular requirements of their pupils, whatever their needs, where necessary referring the child to the specialist support of local authorities or other partners." The University of Manchester research is published in Every Child Journal.

Almost two-thirds of local authorities in England are failing deaf children and their families, research suggests.

A report, carried out by The University of Manchester on behalf of the National Deaf Children's Society, said deaf children were 3.4 times more likely to be abused and 40% had mental health problems.

The research found that only about a third of local authorities had specialist teams or arrangements with designated responsibility for deaf children and their families.

Where there were "children's disability teams", they were unlikely to have any specialist expertise in this area. "The lack of specialist knowledge and expertise was significant because it demonstrably hampered teams from being able appropriately to recognise the seriousness of a presenting problem when it concerned a deaf child," the report said.

Four authorities were found to have no designated services arrangements at all for deaf children and their families. And in 46% of the authorities assessed, there were no qualified social workers who worked with deaf children and their families either as part or whole of their job remit.

Full story on www.silent-sounds.co.uk

The University of Manchester research is published in Every Child Journal.

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The Culture of deafness

Read this very interesting article on "The culture of deafness" on Karlonia.com - http://www.karlonia.com/ I felt it gives a real insight into the decisions that hearing parents have to make when they have deaf children.


In Britain alone, there are as many as eight million people with a hearing loss (two million of whom have profound deafness) and only 50 thousand of whom are sign language users. So, who uses sign language and who doesn’t?

If hearing is present at least up to the age of eighteen months, a child is classed as post-lingually deaf, meaning that he or she has become sufficiently accustomed to the sound and order of words to be able to understand the use of spoken language. A child who is pre-lingually deaf may have no concept of audible language and may therefore become part of a different culture, which is found in the deaf community. The language will be that of signing, with its own syntax and grammar, a language with its own regional variations and with more of a reliance on body language and facial expression than is called for in spoken communication.

By the age of five years, the hearing child has a significant vocabulary and can speak in basic sentences. The deaf child may have no more than a handful or words, leaving the parents wondering about the future. How will they communicate? The majority of deaf children are born to hearing parents and an overwhelmingly high percentage of these parents never learn to sign. Many deny the child’s deafness and, instead of allowing the acquisition of the natural visual approach to communication, they attempt to make the child hearing, in all but the real sense of the word.

Parents who approach the deaf education system will be allowing their child access to a deaf culture, a deaf community, and sign language. These children will spend a great deal of time learning how to lipread though; as they may never have heard the spoken word, much of the language may be forever beyond their grasp.

A brief look at spoken English shows that many words sound the same but have different meanings (buy and by, pair, pear and pare), whilst a same word in phrasal verb form can mean many things (get up, get over, get off, get away), making understanding very difficult. The deaf child stands little chance of understanding regional differences (bun stottie, fadge, bap etc.) and, with a different syntax and grammar, a full understanding of written language may never be mastered. Sentence construction in sign language tends to be front-loaded. ‘The front door of my house is red’ becomes ‘my house front door colour what? Red ’, while ‘last week, I went to London’ presents itself as ‘last week me where? London’. Sentences appear less than whole, but with supporting body language, facial expression, and the sign’s placement and position, the message is equally clear. Sign language is indeed as whole as spoken language, but for the deaf child in a hearing family, the best education route is debatable.

As mentioned previously, post-lingually deaf are those who have heard the spoken word and may have lost some or all of their hearing through illness, accident, or age itself. The skill of lipreading is something that, with progression of deafness, they may have already been doing without realising it, as we all tend to look at people’s lips during conversation.

Again, the same difficulty of recognising a word such as peat, beat, or meat will occur, as they all look the same on the lips. Understanding some of the context of the conversation will, however, allow for a better guess.

Being on the edge of communication presents many difficulties. Words spoken may be too quick to catch, and when in a group situation, knowing who is speaking next creates gaps in the conversation. Background noise and bad lighting and even a man’s moustache can affect one’s ability to read what is going on. At this stage, body language and facial expression again become important, this time to support the spoken word. Indeed, it is wise to remember that lipreading is not an easy option, and some may resort to paper and pen to get the message across. Whichever method is chosen, they both relate to the culture of the hearing world in which the post-lingually deaf person belongs. Look at our website for more articles/information on deafness http://www.silent-sounds.co.uk/

BSL in schools

Very interesting article I came across, by Ian Noon, who is campaigns officer for the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) He is commenting on a new Bill that proposes a new law whereby schools will have to teach primary school children a foreign language. Ian goes on to say,

"Looking at the small-print, this is defined in the Bill as a “modern foreign language” and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) will decide later what languages schools will be able to offer in meeting this requirement.
Alarms bells rang when I read this because British Sign Language is, by definition, not a ‘foreign’ language. It’s an official Government bells-on recognised language in this country. So I emailed the civil servants working on the Bill to get to the bottom of this.

The answer? Not good. Schools will not be able to teach British Sign Language and meet this new primary school languages requirement. I was told that there would be nothing to stop them teaching it as a separate subject if they wanted to. But the signal sent to schools will be quite clear – British Sign Language, which is the first language of around 70,000 people in this country, does not have the same status as languages like French or Mandarin in our schools.
I don’t know about you but as a deaf person, I’m quite offended by that.

Malcolm Bruce MP (who signs himself) has written to DCSF for an explanation. Hopefully, this will prompt the Government to think again… "
Do please comment on this article if you are offended by this as most people seem to be. www.silent-sounds.co.uk/blog

Free BSL presentation at Tate Modern

It's good to see that Tate Modern are making Art accessible for the deaf community.
They are holding a presentation in BSL for deaf visitors, on important painter,
Arshile Gorky on Friday 2 April 2010, 19.00–20.00

Tate Modern Level 4
Admission Free, no booking necessary

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/talksdiscussions/21119.htm

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