Specialist Teaching Service

The Hearing Impairment Team provides for the special educational needs of all children and young people with an educationally significant hearing loss from the time of diagnosis to entry into work. It is delivered by a team of peripatetic and unit teachers, an educational audiologist, a technician and a specialist nursery nurse.

Provision and support encompasses the following:-

• Audiology
• Pre-School support
• Peripatetic schools team
• Post-16 support
• Hearing Impaired Units
• Out of County placement
• Technical services
• Support for parent/carers

AUDIOLOGY

• Diagnosis of hearing loss
• Training for Health Authority Staff
• Advice on the selection of hearing aids
• Monitoring hearing aid performance
• Pre-School clinics
• Evaluating hearing aids and their use

PRE-SCHOOL SUPPORT

• Support for children from diagnosis until school entry
• Monitoring hearing aid use
• Monitoring language development
• Advice for parents

PERIPATETIC SCHOOLS TEAM

• Regular visits teaching and supporting children in mainstream and special schools
• Supervisory visits supporting children and teachers in mainstream and special schools
• Monitoring hearing aid and radio aid use in clinic and classroom situations
• Monitoring language and literacy skills
• Investigation of new case referrals
• Provision of INSET and on-going support to teachers and classroom assistants
• Support and advice to parents
• Contributions to Statutory Assessment and Annual Reviews

POST 16 SUPPORT

• Support for students in schools, 6th form colleges, F.E. colleges, YT placements and Universities.
• Links with Connexions
• Audiological and educational assessments
• Advice to students on courses and funding

HEARING IMPAIRED UNITS

• Attached to mainstream schools
• Allows some curriculum areas to be delivered in small groups by teachers of the deaf
• Emphasis placed on language and literacy development
• Inclusion in mainstream classes
• Provision of INSET and on-going support to teachers and classroom assistants in the mainstream school

OUT OF COUNTY PLACEMENT

• A small number of children are educated Out of County
• In schools for the deaf with an auditory/aural approach
• In schools for the deaf where they are taught using signed communication
• In schools specialising in other difficulties

TECHNICAL SERVICES

• Rapid repair of hearing aids and radio systems
• Technical workshop
• Ear mould impressions

SUPPORT FOR PARENTS/CARERS

• Recognising the important role of parents/carers in children's education
• Close contact with parents maintained
• Forthnightly parents group for parents of pre-school children

Educational Audiology

The Team has a qualified educational audiologist who works in co-operation with the local Health Authorities and Trusts in promoting the early identification of hearing loss in children and advises on the audiological procedures necessary to achieve this. The team is involved in a continuous programme of health staff training in hearing screening procedures and the educational audiologist attends a number of diagnostic audiology clinics every month.

Members of the team work closely with the local E.N.T. consultants and provide advice on the selection of hearing aids for children. The educational audiologist liaises closely with other members of the team to ensure satisfactory fitting and monitoring of aid performance. The majority of children are fitted with two hearing aids as a routine and radio aids are available for all severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children. The team has a well-equipped clinic at Rothley House, Coalville which is available for the audiological assessment of children and young people and for the detailed monitoring of hearing aids in use.

Technical Services

The education of hearing-impaired children in Leicestershire is heavily dependent upon the hearing aids and radio equipment used by children to enable them to make the best use of their residual hearing. To ensure the best possible use of the equipment the team employs a qualified electronic technician who is able to provide repair and maintenance support for all equipment used by children and teachers.

There is a well equipped workshop, to which repairs can be brought by teachers and parents directly. Ninety percent of repairs are carried out locally, providing an effective and cost efficient service. A small number need to be returned to manufacturers for specialist reasons. The technician contributes significantly to the overall selection and management of equipment.

Early Years Provision

The early years team of specialist teachers and language support assistant provide support for all pre-school hearing impaired children from the point of diagnosis until their management transfers to the schools peripatetic teachers or unit staff. Much of the work is based in the child's home working with and supporting parents.

Peripatetic Schools Team

Peripatetic teachers are responsible for managing the special needs of children of statutory school age with an educationally significant hearing loss. The level of support is needs led and varies from regular weekly visiting to some students (up to four visits per week) to supervisory work, seeing children termly or only on request. There is a complete range of input in between these levels.

Peripatetic teachers also carry out detailed audiological and educational assessments on over two hundred new referrals of school aged children each year received from E.N.T. Consultants or as a result of routine assessments by the Leicester City West Primary Health Care Trust.

Support is also provided to hearing-impaired children with additional disabilities who attend special schools within Leicestershire.

Units for Hearing-Impaired Children

The Service has unit provision for secondary aged children who need the support of a specialist teacher of the hearing-impaired more often than can be delivered by the peripatetic service. The units are an integral part of the service having a flexibility of staffing resulting from being part of a County wide team. Staffing can be increased or decreased depending on need and the other commitments of the team. All children placed in a unit are subject to a Statement of Special Educational Need.

Units offer a different form of provision to mainstream integration as some elements of the curriculum are delivered by unit staff. All children receive a high level of individual time in the unit setting with a particular attention being paid to providing opportunities for language extension, literacy skills and curriculum access.

There is currently no primary unit provision for hearing-impaired children.

Out of County Placements

Some hearing impaired pupils receive their education through a signed approach either through identified need or as a result of parental choice and others require placement in provision for other difficulties in addition to their hearing impairment. These are currently both relatively small groups and in order to provide such children with a viable peer group they are educated in out of County Special Schools. Ways of developing in County provision for these groups effectively are currently under review.

Parent Contacts

The team recognises the central role of parents, carers and families in the education and general development of children with hearing difficulties. It endeavours to maintain close contacts with the families of all children receiving regular support. Most of these contacts are established through home visits, contact at school or through home/school books. Through these contacts teachers hope to be able to form a partnership with parents in meeting the needs of case-load children.

Further Education Team

Two peripatetic teachers work with students attending further or higher education establishments or undergoing youth training. Students are assisted in making decisions about courses available and in choosing career options in conjunction with the Careers service. The Team also provides advice and support to tutors and tutorial support to students. Radio aids are available for students needing this facility.

Liaison with other Agencies

At times, children with whom the team works have other needs in addition to hearing impairment which may be outside the experience or expertise of teachers of the hearing-impaired. All of these children benefit from the expertise of other professionals to ensure that their needs are properly met. To facilitate this, the team co-operates closely with medical officers, educational psychologists, careers officers, speech therapists, health visitors, social workers, other Teams within the Specialist Teaching Service and other colleagues within the Education Department as the need arises.

The team functions as an integrated whole. All branches of the team from pre-school to further education meet on a regular basis to share experiences and to develop knowledge and skills through in service training. Through these meetings, teachers are able to identify issues of concern and models of good practice. Team colleagues can use their collective experience to move forward. It is through this constant evaluation of our work that we have been able to identify factors influencing the education of hearing-impaired children and through which we continually seek to improve services to our clients.