A Lincoln family speaks up about the struggle's deaf children face

We've been hearing from a Lincoln family about how their deaf son tackles the challenge of learning at school, deafness is not seen as a learning disability, which often leaves deaf children without extra support. Now, the National Deaf Children's Society is calling on the Government, to invest in more specialist staff to support deaf students and prevent them falling behind at school.

A Lincolnshire family tells us that deaf children need extra support in school, despite deafness not being classed as a learning disability.

Deaf children already achieve less than their hearing classmates at every stage of school on average.

The poll, of around 5,700 primary and secondary school teachers from across England, found around six in ten teachers in the Midlands believe deaf children will continue to underachieve at school without changes to the current system.

The National Deaf Children’s Society says deaf young people are being consistently failed by the education system.

We spoke to Herminia Greaves and her son Marshall about what the difficulties are for deaf children in school.

Marshall, who is seven, told us that he does get support in school from a device called ' Mr Roger'. It allows him to isolate one voice over the others in a classroom:

"I got some wires that I connect into the device that I'm using, and then I can connect it to Roger, and then it comes through my hearing aid."

Herminia added that its important children are guided during their education:

"Because he has to concentrate so much harder to keep up with things, we do lots of movement breaks or lots of time out, you know, active tests and then really, I think, lots of repetition helps. So, we do lots of singing, songs are very easy to remember, and we do lots of narratives too, and lots of that Marshall misses out on in school because he can't keep up with what's going on around him."

Herminia continued to say that things like his balance is also affected, and that he struggles with swimming and soft play because he often can't wear his hearing aids.

"It's hard work for him to concentrate and to listen, and even with his hearing aids... the hearing aids just amplify all sounds.

"So, if he's in a room with 20- 30 other children, all the sounds are amplified, and he has to filter that out, which needs a lot more concentrating. Obviously, when you do group work, he has to be able to look at the paper, look at the people that are talking, follow the teacher, and so that's a lot of steps, that other children might take for granted."

The Department for Education is currently reviewing how disabled children are supported in schools, as part of its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Review.

The charity urges the Government to use this opportunity to develop a plan to provide effective, long-term specialist support.

Without this, the charity says there could be a long-term, devastating effect on deaf children’s education, with future generations also left to struggle.

There are currently around 33,000 deaf children in schools across England, with the vast majority (84%) in mainstream schools. There are around 9,000 deaf children in the Midlands.