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A key person for many families is the Hearing Support Service (HSS) advisory teacher (teacher of the Deaf) . They are likely to be the key person helping to coordinate early years support.
This will involve regular visits at home. This is to support families with hearing equipment and guidance. It is also to develop listening and communication skills.
Young children with a hearing loss often need extra support to help with the development of:
- listening skills
- language
- communication
The HSS provides guidance, equipment, and resources to families in a variety of ways. We:
- support children and their families from diagnosis, often within a few weeks of birth
- offer regular visits to the home, nursery, preschool and EYFS reception year
- work with families to help their child develop listening, language and communication skills
- run a monthly parent support group for pre school children to enjoy play opportunities and for families to get together
Audiology and hearing assessments for babies and young children
An important part of early support for families is helping you to understand your child’s hearing test results and diagnosis.
Your advisory teacher will provide information and guidance about your child’s hearing assessment. This should include:
- your child’s type and level of hearing loss
- how your child’s hearing will be checked
- your child’s hearing levels, and the test results shown on an audiogram
- how to look after your child’s hearing aids
Find out more about your baby's visit to the Audiology department.
The National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) has lots of information to help you. You can find out how to understand your child's hearing tests. It also provides information about the newborn hearing screening programme.
How we work to support you and your child
After a request has been made for our input, we will be in touch with you. This will be to discuss your baby or child’s hearing assessment results, and agree a plan for support. Together we will monitor your child’s developmental journey. We will agree priorities for listening and communication development.
Parent Support Group
The HSS runs a monthly parent support group (PSG) for parents of pre school children which meets at Longfleet Baptist Church in Poole. The PSG is open to families with babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
It’s a great opportunity to make friends, share experiences and have fun. The group runs on the first Tuesday of the month from 9:30am to 11:30am. Please ask your advisory teacher for further details.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework
The HSS works with families and preschool settings to ensure that the key principles of the EYFS are achieved.
These principles are:
- quality and consistency in early years settings. This is so that every child makes good progress, and no child gets left behind
- a secure foundation. We do this through planning. This is for the learning and development of each individual child. Regularly assessing and reviewing what they have learned
- partnership working between practitioners and with parents or carers
- equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice. We ensure that every child is included and supported
- every baby and child is unique. They are constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
- babies and children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- babies and children learn and develop well in enabling environments. This is with teaching and support from adults. These adults respond to their individual interests and needs. They help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents or carers
- babies and children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all babies and children in early years provision. This includes babies and children with special educational needs and disabilities
We use the EYFS framework to support families in all aspects of their child’s development. Our focus is on communication and language.
The three key areas are:
Interactions
We can make a big difference in how well communication and language skills develop. This comes from good interactions between adults and children. Children’s interactions from an early age form the foundations for language development.
Exploring language
Children develop strong language skills when:
- they are involved in playful, language rich environments
- they have opportunities to learn new words
Hands on experiences and play encourage learning. They provide a context for new words to be explored.
Listening and understanding
Communication begins with two important skills: listening and understanding. Listening is different to hearing, it means interpreting different sounds, while beginning to understand social interactions. Understanding means processing what’s being communicated, beginning with simple ideas and vocabulary.
There are lots of activities you can try at home.
Success from the start. How we guide and support development and learning.
Success from the Start is an NDCS resource. It was created to help families of deaf children to:
- observe
- monitor
- record
the progress that children make. We use this resource with babies and pre-schoolers to monitor them. We can celebrate success and help families plan for next steps.
Success from the Start helps us build up a full understanding of your child's:
- listening
- language
- communication
needs. This enables us to support families with activities. These activities are designed to improve outcomes. They can help your child reach early learning goals.
If your child is under 5 and you have any concerns about their health and development you can get help and advice from your Health Visitor . You can also message the Health Visitor team. You can do this via the via the Parent Line confidential text messaging service from Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.
Early years support from your local council
Further information and guidance for families of preschool children is available on our website. If you live in the BCP area you can access their Local Offer.