Resources for early years practitioners

Deaf children can face particular challenges in developing language in the early years. Glue ear is also highly prevalent in 0-5 year olds and can cause sustained periods of temporary deafness.

The resources below provide more information to support early years practitioners working with deaf children. If you have any other questions, please contact our free helpline. 

• Supporting the achievement of hearing impaired children in early years settings
  
  
• Interview with a childminder on caring for an early years deaf child
  
  
• My deaf child and going to nursery video 
  Explains  some of the challenges deaf children in early years settings may face and how these can be overcome, from one family’s point of view
   
• Research paper from the National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NATSIP) exploring early years language and development in deaf children

View our information on different types of deafness. 

The following information was developed for families, but may also be of interest to you:

• Supporting your child's learning 
• Your childcare rights - Wales 
• Supporting your deaf baby or toddler's listening and speech development 
• Developing your baby's communication and language 
• Creating good listening conditions - for parents 

These Quality Standards and accompanying audit tool were developed for use in England, but may be of interest to early years practitioners elsewhere as well:

• Quality Standards: Early years support for children with a hearing loss 0 to 5 (England)
• Self-audit tool