Creating a good communication environment

All children need access to good quality language to develop their communication skills. Making some small adaptations to your home and family life can make a big difference to your child’s ability to engage with social interaction and conversation. 

This page includes some tips on how you can establish good family communication habits, stay aware of your surroundings, and adjust your communication style when you need to. Remember, these are just our suggestions. However you communicate, the most important thing is to enjoy spending time with your child.

We don’t use radio aids at home, we’ve simply shared our knowledge with the family on how to be deaf aware, for example, giving Rhys time to answer questions, being specific in what they ask, not speaking with food in their mouth, not jumping from one topic to another, and to always include him in conversation to avoid him feeling left out. Rhys wants to talk about the toys he got like any child, just listen and give him time to speak and answer.

Sara is mum to Rhys, who has moderate to severe hearing loss and uses hearing aids.

Read Sara's tips for making Christmas and other family get-togethers deaf-friendly.

Tips for communication at home

• Face your child when you speak and ask others to do the same. Deaf children pick up visual clues from seeing your face and body language.
• Turn-taking is a vital skill for communication development. When in groups, try to encourage turn-taking so that not everyone is speaking at once. Situations like family mealtimes, playdates, and visits from guests can be excellent opportunities to practise and ensure your child does not feel left out. Make turn-taking in conversation the norm in your house!
• Make sure the faces of speakers are in a good light to make visual cues like lipreading and interpreting facial expressions easier to understand. Make sure your child can see you and any others in the conversation.
• If you’re communicating about unfamiliar things, use visual cues to support understanding, such as objects, books, toys, or pictures.
• Support, respond to, and praise your child’s communication attempts. Speaking or communicating for them might undermine their confidence. Celebrate your child’s communication attempts and encourage your family to do the same.
• Create a positive language environment where children can experience language being used all around them in everyday life. Children benefit from being around adults and children who interact positively together.
• With babies and young children, having a stimulating but uncluttered visual environment will help to focus their attention.
• Have quiet times in the day when your child can rest. Deaf children have to concentrate more to communicate than children with typical hearing and may have less energy for other things.

Sometimes Rhys might miss what’s being said to him, especially if he’s engrossed in something. We get his full attention before we speak, making sure there’s no distraction, engaging him by sitting close and having eye contact.

Sara, mum to Rhys

Tips for communicating in sign language

• Encourage everyone around your child to sign even when your child isn’t part of the conversation. This will give your child the opportunity to experience communication in the same way as a hearing child might ‘overhear’ conversation in spoken language.
• If people are signing, encourage them to wear plain colours without too much pattern. This will make it easier for your child to follow signing.
• Encourage the whole family to watch TV programmes and shows which feature sign language, such as BBC SeeHear or Lumo TV.
• Don’t worry about your sign language being perfect. It takes time to learn a new language, so go at your own pace.

At Christmas dinner, I sat him next to my niece Sophie (10) who’s quiet and attentive; she came to family sign language lessons with us. She’ll tap him, say, ‘We’re talking about this or that,’ and she makes sure to keep him in the loop.

Sara, mum to Rhys.

Tips for speaking and listening 

• If your child uses hearing devices, try to be near and clear when you’re communicating to give them the best possible quality sound. Hearing devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants work best when the speaker is close by.
• Try to bring ‘household’ sounds to your child’s conscious attention. For example, actively listen together to identify the sounds made by a vacuum cleaner, the washing machine or other items of equipment in the home.
• Use visual indicators of sounds like the doorbell or telephone, such as lights which flash when they ring. This will give your child the same opportunity as hearing children to naturally access their surroundings, identify sounds and understand their meaning. 

Find out more about assistive listening technology.

We also got to test [the Cochlear Mini Mic] for Halloween trick-or-treating this year. With darkness partially obscuring people’s faces, lipreading can be tricky. We were able to use the Mini Mic to help her comprehension. It was also much easier to get her attention to stop her wandering too far and to make sure she was crossing roads safely in the excitement of the evening and anticipation of too many sweets!

Nicky is mum to Isabelle, who's profoundly deaf and uses cochlear implants with the Cochlear Mini Mic.

Read Nicky's blog.

Reducing background noise 

Background noise can make hearing and listening harder. It can be difficult to manage background noise in a busy household. If you can, try to reduce sounds by turning off the TV or music when you don’t need it and avoiding using noisy appliances like a dishwasher when you’re trying to play or read together.

You can also use curtains, carpets and other soft furnishings to cushion sound and stop it from bouncing around and reverberating. 

Sometimes, it’s just not possible to avoid noisy auditory or visual surroundings, such as when your family are outdoors or in a crowded place. In those instances, try to make sure that you use every means you can to communicate, even if it isn’t strictly within the approach you usually use. For example, if your child is learning to speak and listen, you might use signs or gestures to support communication when crossing a busy road.

Beatrice now chooses to talk instead of sign. However, we use Sign Supported English (SSE) when she can’t hear, for example, when her aids are out or we're in busy places.

Charlotte is mum to Beatrice (3) who's severely to profoundly deaf and wears hearing aids. 

Read Charlotte's blog.

Everyday routines to promote language learning and develop communication 

Fun activities such as socialising with friends or a trip to the park can provide great opportunities for introducing and reinforcing good communication habits and language development. But ordinary care activities and necessary daily routines can do that too, such as: 

• getting up, washing, nappy changing, dressing
• mealtimes
• household ‘jobs’ such as tidying up, washing the pots or stacking the dishwasher, cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry
• shopping
• bath time
• bedtime

These everyday activities create opportunities for new language and vocabulary to be introduced, reinforced and repeated in relaxed and natural ways through interactions with your child. Children are more likely to get involved when they know it will be enjoyable for both of you. Try to recognise, respond to and encourage their communication contributions and have fun together.

Try to explain what you’re doing throughout the day, down to where nan and gramps are sitting at the table, what food you’re cooking, and the games you’re going to play – a deaf child needs repetition of words to increase their vocabulary and grow in their development.

Sara, mum to Rhys