Government missing ‘opportunity of a generation’ to invest in futures of deaf children

Government figures published today reveal that two million babies have been screened by the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) in England and 3,400 children have been identified as deaf.

The screening milestone is welcomed by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), the organisation that campaigned for this essential service to be introduced for many years. However, the charity warns that the new statistics come at a time when early information and support is rarely provided to families when they need it most. The lack of appropriate support prevents families from making informed choices about how to support their newly identified deaf child.

Susan Daniels, NDCS Chief Executive explains:

“NHSP has the potential to revolutionise the lives of deaf children. Children being identified as deaf on day one should be achieving on a par with their hearing peers throughout their education and beyond. At present deaf children are under achieving at school. Only 1 in 3 deaf children achieve 5 GCSEs A-C grade compared to over half of their hearing peers. The failure to effectively support families results in many deaf children entering the education system with little or very poor language skills. They are disadvantaged from the start.

If the success of screening is followed by the provision of appropriate early support for families of every deaf child then we should see this attainment gap close. This is the opportunity of a generation to improve the life chances of deaf children.”

NHSP is a fantastic start but it is just a start. Screening will only work if there truly is a full range of support and information available to all families. This must  include responsive and timely audiological, speech and language services as well as early years education support immediately following identification. At present, too many families are left in the dark, struggling to find the support they need.”

Early detection of deafness is vital in order to enable children to have the best possible opportunity to develop crucial language and communication skills, at the same rate as their hearing peers.

A child’s first three years are when the most intensive language development takes place.  An undiagnosed deaf child aged three will only know about 25 words, compared to 700 words for a hearing child of the same age.[1]

Susan Daniels adds:

“The government has invested in newborn hearing screening, now it must invest in the futures of the deaf children that are identified early as a result.”

There are 35,000 deaf children in the UK and three more are born every day. 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents with little or no experience of deafness or knowledge of how to communicate with a deaf person and many deaf children struggle to communicate with their immediate family, and develop language at a slower rate than their hearing peers.

Given the right support there is no reason for any deaf child to develop language at a slower rate than a hearing child with similar abilities. Deafness is not a learning disability and there is no reason why the majority of deaf children should achieve any less than hearing children.

-Ends-

Notes to editors
For further information please contact:
Diana Brooks, NDCS Campaigns and Media Manager
Tel: 020 7014 1146
Email: diana.brooks@ndcs.org.uk

Philippa McIntyre, NDCS Media Relations Officer
Tel: 020 7014 1149
Email: philippa.mcintyre@ndcs.org.uk

- NDCS is the national charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people. We represent the interests and campaign for the rights of all deaf children and young people from birth to independence.
- NDCS believes that the family is the most important influence on a deaf child's development. NDCS supports the deaf child through the family as well as directly supporting deaf children and young people themselves.
- Three babies are born deaf every day and 90 per cent of deaf children are born to hearing parents with little experience of deafness.
- There are 35,000 deaf children in the UK.
- Parents with concerns about their child’s hearing can contact the NDCS Freephone Helpline on 0808 800 8880 (voice and text) or email helpline@ndcs.org.uk open 10am – 5pm Monday to Friday, or access the website at www.ndcs.org.uk

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[1] Yoshinaga-Itano, 1998, quoted in “The High Cost of Hearing Loss; What Our Publics Need to Know,” Donald Radcliffe, The Hearing Journal, May 1998, vol 51 no. 5