Advocating for your deaf child in early education

This information is for families of deaf children in England. Read our information for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

All children deserve the care and support they need to have the best start in life. This includes children with any type of hearing loss or levels of deafness. 

Children learn and develop at a faster rate from birth to 5 years old than at any other time in their lives. Their experiences in early years have a major impact on their future life chances. Deaf children’s safe and happy experiences at home as well as, high-quality early learning are important. These provide the foundation they need to fulfil their potential. 

You know your child. Sharing what works best for them with their early years provider can be helpful. It will help to build a strong foundation for their development and learning. 

Understand advocating

Advocating for someone is when you stand up for what they need or is their right. Babies and young children are not able to fully advocate for themselves. Babies and young children may not have the language to describe how they feel. Older children may not feel comfortable letting an adult know if something is wrong.

Parents and carers of deaf children can be advocators for them. Knowing your child's rights in education and what you’re entitled to as a family can help. You can advocate for them to make sure they get the support they need. Sometimes, showing that you’re aware of your rights can make it easier to help solve problems. 

It doesn’t come naturally to me to be a pushy parent, or to challenge professionals. We knew something wasn’t right, deep in our guts, and we needed to be Sybil’s voice. Knowing we were doing this for her pushed us on. When it came to choosing Sybil’s education we had to draw on our experience of advocating for her to ensure she was getting the right support.”

Holly is mum to Sybil (5), who is profoundly deaf and wears cochlear implants.

You can find tips on how to advocate for your child (Disabled Children Partnership).

Working in partnership with staff 

Working in partnership with the professionals looking after your child can help. Building these relationships will help your child settle into their new environment. Being in the loop means that you can address any issues quickly.

As well as staff at the setting or provider, other professionals important to your child's early education may include:

• Teacher of the Deaf (ToD)

• Special education needs co-ordinator (SENCo)

• a key person

Deaf awareness

Some early years settings and provider may not have looked after a deaf child before. There are some things you can do to help them and raise deaf awareness.

• Set up meeting with the professionals important to your child’s early education. This may include, your child's key person, their ToD if they have one and a SENCo if there is one.

• Share our information, resources and training for early years education professionals.

• Depending on your child's age, you can visit the setting or provider to talk about deaf awareness to the other children. You can discuss deafness, hearing technology and attention grabbers.

• Share our deaf awareness videos for early years children. These short, fun, and colourful animated videos help young children understand how to support their deaf peers. The videos feature a diverse range of animal characters from our children’s book, Elephant and the Lost Blanket.

• As your child makes friends, talk to the other parents about your child's deafness and how they like to communicate.

• Share some deaf awareness resources with your child’s setting or provider.

Recognising the signs

It can be tricky to know if an early years setting or provider is meeting your child's needs. Being able to recognise the signs that it might not be the right environment for them is important. It can help you to solve issues quickly or ask for support. Especially as babies and young children may not have the language to tell you how they feel.

Here are some signs that may indicate that something isn’t quite right.

• It’s always very noisy at drop off or pick up

• Problems with your child’s hearing aids or implants. For example, coming home with dead batteries, damaged or switched off

• The setting or provider is using Makaton instead of British Sign Language (BSL)

• Noticeable changes in your child’s behaviour

• Negative attitudes of the staff or childcare provider towards disability or deafness

• Your child is being left out of things

Getting support

Every early years setting and provider is different. Your child has the right to be fully included. They may need some extra support to help them to take part in activities and experiences. Each deaf child is different and challenges they may face will vary. It’s important for staff not to make assumptions. They should consider each child individually and what works best of them.

Some deaf children benefit from additional support in early years education. If you think your child needs extra support, there are professionals you can talk to.

Find out more about deafness and SEND.