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Literacy andnumeracy

Join BATOD to get THE Magazine for professionals working with deaf children

MAGAZINE • March 2011 • ISSN 1336-0799 • www.BATOD.org.uk

British Association of Teachers of the Deaf

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From your editor With the advent of the CoalitionGovernment, once again thespotlight falls on literacy andnumeracy – not that they ever really went away. Theintroduction of the phonic screen for Year 1 has its own

implications for deaf children, and BATOD hasbeen discussing this with the Department forEducation. There will be more about this on ourwebsite in due course. This edition of the Magazinelooks at a range of aspects of literacy andnumeracy, both from a research point of view butalso, and predominantly, looking at approaches toliteracy and numeracy that colleagues have founduseful in their work. This includes those working in special schools as well as those working inmainstream schools, including peripateticcolleagues.

Our Journal Editor, Linda Watson, kicks off thesection with some thoughts about the role ofparents, and other literacy-focused articles coverthe use of imagination, BSL, reading for meaningand some recent research into the readingdevelopment of deaf children. Numeracy articlesinclude responding to dyscalculia in deaf children,working with the interactive whiteboard and usingpictures to solve problems, as well as someresearch from Oxford University into deaf children’snumeracy. There are also articles from the CuedSpeech Association and Deafax, looking at bothliteracy and numeracy as relevant to their work.

You are also encouraged to visit our website whereyou will find a helpful resource sheet covering arange of aspects of numeracy. It can be found at:Articles >> Numeracy >> Numeracy resourcesheets.

Forthcoming topicsMay Conference edition –

Stronger togetherSeptember Assistive technologyNovember Units and resource basesJanuary 2012 Hearing aidsMarch 2012 Communication

Magazine editor

Literacy and numeracyRoutes into literacy 4

Foundations for literacy 6

Shaping a sentence 8

Literacy report 10

A bit of imagination 12

The DReaM project 14

The Year of Reading 16

Making visual sense of language 18

Words and numbers 20

Specific maths difficulties 21

Mastering the key concepts 24

Numeracy on the IWB 26

Acquiring maths skills 27

Problem solving with pictures 29

General features Lessons from America 32

Mental health outcomes 34

Transmission strategies 36

A HIT day 38

Roots and Shoots 39

Exploring sign multilingualism 41

The HOT Project 42

Getting to grips with genetics 44

Regulars ICT news 49

This and that 52

Abbreviations and acronyms 54

Calendar – meetings and training 56

Association businessStronger together 3

Change of address notification form 35

What went on at NEC on 29 January 2011 46

BATOD was there representing you… 47

Leonardo’s progress 48

Subscription rates 2010/11 55

Officers of Nations and Regions inside back cover

Need to contact BATODabout other matters?Talk to Executive Officer Paul Simpson

email: [email protected] answerphone/fax

0845 6435181

Contents

39

18

49

48

Cover picture Courtesy of Cochlear™ Europe Ltd

For information on advertising rates see www.BATOD.org.uk

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© B A T O D M a g a z i n e • M a r c h 2 0 1 1 • 3

A s s o c i a t i o n b u s i n e s s

Ibegin this edition of ‘Stronger together’ with twoquestions for you:

Do you know the percentage of BATOD memberswho are aged 50 years or over?Answer: 62.7%

Do you know the percentage of members who areunder 40 years of age?Answer: 9.9%

I am not one to be alarmist, but as I have visited theregions and nations over the last 12 months I have beengiving the stark message that in 10–15 years’ time theremay not be a BATOD as membership will have dwindledto such an extent that it won’t be viable. If you do themaths on the above facts it speaks for itself.

That is why I feel a sense of urgency to do somethingnow during my term of office as your President. It’s notabout me or indeed many of us on NEC and regionalcommittees, as by then we will have retired. However,what I feel a great responsibility for is the continuing ofa strong professional body to meet the needs of ourfuture deaf learners, whether they be in mainstream,resource-based provision or special school settings.BATOD has provided a very significant percentage of my own professional development over the last 30 years as a specialist teacher and I believe it needsto exist for Teachers of the Deaf in years to come.

That is why on 14 January there was a special SteeringGroup meeting in Birmingham to which we invitedheads of service and Teachers of the Deaf from acrossthe regions and nations to consider what we should donow to increase the membership for the future. Wewere also joined by Gillian Coles, Co-President ofVIEW, who was representing teachers of the visuallyimpaired who share our situation too. Having done aSWOT analysis, we identified a number of immediatenext steps:• All existing BATOD members to encourage

another teacher to consider becoming a Teacherof the Deaf and tell them how to do it. If you havefound one already, keep going and find another!

• All existing BATOD members to encourage a ToDwho is a non-member (I am grieved that some arenot members already!) to join.

• Regions and nations to draw up lists of trainingestablishments in their area which deliver initialteacher training.

• BATOD members identified across the country to take leaflets (and speak?) to those on initialteacher training courses and training schoolswhen they start to sow the seeds about becominga specialist Teacher of the Deaf.

• BATOD to involve more members to take on smallone-off tasks in representing the Association.

• Members to target newly qualified teachers (orprobationers in Scotland) in local authorities toconsider our specialism in the future.

• BATOD to review rates of membership with furtherincentives and differentiation.

• BATOD NEC to continue to lobby the Governmentto offer incentives to teachers who wish tospecialise as a Teacher of the Deaf, like the‘golden hellos’ for shortage subjects.

• BATOD to build on and develop closer links with VIEW to address the professional issues to support the needs of those with sensoryimpairments.

While the position is stark, our meeting concluded thatgiven our size there were many strengths and much tocelebrate about our current BATOD membership. Weagreed that we have a highly motivated and activemembership, which is committed to continuingprofessional development through regional and nationalconferences and workshops. BATOD more thanpunches above its weight in terms of its influence atgovernment level and long may it continue to do so.

I am more than aware that the Steering Group andNational Executive Council do not have all the answersso I would like to invite you to write to me at this emailaddress [email protected] with your ideas offurther ways to ensure our future or if you are willing totake on a small job or represent BATOD at a trainingestablishment, for example, or offer to be involved withone of the above activities. My ‘Stronger together’strapline seems to resonate more and more eachmonth as my term of office continues.

In whichever setting you are working as a Teacher ofthe Deaf I would like to thank you on behalf of BATODfor your loyalty and commitment to deaf children and tothis organisation.

Stronger togetherWith the future of the ToD profession far from secure, Gary Anderson

gives a timely reminder that Your Association Needs You – and

others!

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Parents of young deaf children will expressdifferent views on how and when their deafchild will begin to learn to read and write. When

Ruth Swanwick and I investigated the views andactions of parents in 2007 we found a wide range of opinions and practices, from those who felt thatteaching deaf children to read and write was bestleft to the professionals once the child startedschool, to those who were concerned about thedebate on the teaching of phonics and wanted tostart to teach their child initial letter sounds from a young age. Teachers of the Deaf can also holddifferent opinions, which will influence what they say when discussing the topic with parents.

At first this might seem like a challenge, but itactually reflects the broad range of knowledge, skillsand understanding that we all bring to the literacyprocess, sometimes referred to as ‘top down’ and‘bottom up’ or ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’ processes.When speaking to parents I often refer to the ‘bigpicture’ and the ‘little picture’ and explain the need to foster both aspects and the important rolefor parents. By the ‘big picture’ I mean generallanguage knowledge and understanding of the world,as well as story structure. While it is of course truethat literacy can support the development of deafchildren’s language, for those in the early stages oflearning it is easiest if their literacy learning buildson language that they already know and understand.Thus deaf children with well-developed language willhave an advantage in beginning literacy.

The link between language and literacy meritsdiscussion, so that parents appreciate that the workthey are putting in to supporting their deaf child’slanguage development is important for literacydevelopment as well. Vocabulary is one aspect that deserves particular stress. Parents may beencouraged to promote their child’s generalvocabulary, for example by using alternative words and ensuring that they do not limit their ownvocabulary use to words that they know are familiarto their child. Vocabulary that is specific to stories,for example ‘Once upon a time…’, is also going tobe useful to children when they begin to read forthemselves. In our study mentioned above, Ruthand I found that parents who were deaf themselveswere particularly good at fostering this kind oflanguage and vocabulary and saw the importance of ensuring that their deaf children learnt about

stories and storytelling, providing them with a baseon which to build.

The second aspect, or the ‘little picture’, refers tothe engagement with the text. In respect to books,this involves factors like finding the front of the bookand following the way that text, in English, flowsfrom left to right and then to the line below, againleft to right. Recognising that the words tell the story and the pictures are complementary, andseeing the importance of both the words and thespaces between the words are all helpful featuresfor children to grasp, and come from sharing bookswith adults and discussing particular features. This can include some early letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence. We found that hearing parents of deaf children were particularlygood at these text-based skills.

In any discussion with parents of young deafchildren about reading and writing, it can be usefulto ensure that as Teachers of the Deaf we hold abroad view of what constitutes literacy. This willenable us to observe individual parents of deafchildren engaging in literacy activities with their childand discuss with them what they are already doingto support their child’s reading and writing and otherpractices that they might include. Some of the text-based skills can be easy for deaf children to graspand can form part of a discussion with parentsaround what their child already knows in relation tobeginning to read, which can be encouraging. If webroaden our discussion to conceptualise literacy asinterpreting symbols, then the link between reading,writing and early numeracy becomes clearer. Parentsare often inclined to count with young children, deafas well as hearing, but may not have the knowledge

L i t e r a c y a n d n u m e r a c y

4 • © B A T O D M a g a z i n e • M a r c h 2 0 1 1

Routes into literacyAs deaf children begin to read, write and be numerate it is essential that parents

and Teachers of the Deaf work together, says Linda Watson

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or confidence to go beyond that. One reason whyolder deaf children can lag behind in numeracyrelates to the vocabulary that is used, and againparents can be encouraged to introduce some ofthe specific vocabulary, for example words likeadd/subtract/minus/fewer, and also less obviousvocabulary like the fact that ‘table’ can refer to achart as well as an item of furniture.

While parents are often eager to encourage youngchildren, deaf or hearing, to share books with them,and to discuss the books, young children’s firstattempts at writing are not always afforded thesame attention or given the same encouragement.This is a pity because, as with learning aboutbooks, so young children can show that they havethe beginnings of understanding about writing –what print looks like, how letters (or letter-likeshapes) are grouped into ‘words’ and the differencebetween letters and numbers. These features canbe brought out from a child’s early writing and usedto promote further understanding.

Although I have discussed the need to hold a broadview of literacy, I may have given the impressionthat for young deaf children learning to read andwrite relates to interactions with books or pencil andpaper activities. It is true that much research todate has indeed focused on the way in whichparents and young deaf children interact aroundbooks. One reason for this may be that it is theeasiest situation to record and analyse, but anunintended negative consequence may be thatparents gain the impression that this type of literacyactivity is more highly regarded than other forms,when in reality there are other ways in whichparents of deaf children may engage with literacywhich may be better suited to some families.

With Margaret Brown and other colleagues from the University of Melbourne and Taralye EarlyIntervention Centre, I am currently investigatingthree types of literacy activity that parents mightengage in themselves and with their young deafchildren. The first type, which we term ‘traditionalliteracy’, refers to reading and sharing books, thetype of literacy activity to which I was referringabove. The second, ‘environmental literacy’,encourages parents to consider literacy that theyencounter in their everyday life, including readingnotices and road signs, following recipes, writinglists, consulting TV schedules and readingmagazines or catalogues. Some children engagevery readily with the many attractive and colourfulmagazines for children that are currently on themarket. The third category (‘new technology’) refersto any activity on a computer or mobile phone thatinvolves print, for example text messages, emails,searching for information and playing games. Wehave already looked at the richness that three

cohorts of parents of hearing children provide for their children when they are aged four, and indue course we will be able to see whether thiscorrelates with these children’s own literacydevelopment at the age of six. We are currentlyexploring whether parents of deaf children of a similar age provide them with an equally rich literacy environment. By using the samequestionnaire developed for parents of hearingchildren and adding some further questions, we are exploring whether/how they think that theirchildren’s deafness will affect the way that theylearn to read and write. We will be pleased if wefind that these young deaf children are beingprovided with the same rich diet of literacy activitiesas their hearing peers, both in terms of watchingtheir parents and also of being actively engagedthemselves. We are keen to explore ways in whichtheir home literacy environment can assist deafchildren with their own literacy learning.

There are many ways in which young deaf childrencan begin to engage in literacy activities, and asparents and Teachers of the Deaf we can exploitthem all for the benefit of deaf children. Parents,who know their deaf child best, may be able to helpTeachers of the Deaf to find a route into literacy for their child. Maybe as professionals we need tocheck that we are using every resource available tous, including fully engaging with parents, viewingtheir knowledge of their child as complementary to our professional knowledge of the process oflearning to read, write and be numerate.

Linda Watson is a senior lecturer in deaf educationat the University of Birmingham and Editor ofBATOD’s Journal Deafness and EducationInternational.


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Despite 30 years having passed since RichardConrad’s 1979 seminal study, The Deaf SchoolChild, researchers are still trying to answer the

questions of how deaf children learn to read and whatmakes a good deaf reader. One reason for this is that few research studies incorporate a longitudinalperspective. Longitudinal studies, in which the samegroup of children is seen repeatedly over time, areessential for understanding reading development. Whileit is well documented that many deaf children leaveschool with a reading age below that of their hearingpeers, there is little data showing how reading delaysdevelop over time, ie do deaf children make relativelygood progress in the early years of reading but thensuddenly reach a plateau or is development slow rightfrom the beginning?

The main aim of our research was to look at thedevelopment of deaf children’s literacy, and, in particular,determine the predictors of reading and spellingachievement in deaf children from mixed languagebackgrounds. We wanted to answer a number ofresearch questions:• How do deaf children’s reading skills actually develop

year on year? • Which cognitive or language-based abilities predict

how well deaf children read and spell? • What makes a good deaf reader?

What we did and how we did itIn order to examine the reading process in deaf childrenduring primary school, we conducted two longitudinalstudies: • Study 1 looked at beginning readers (24 deaf and 23

hearing children) who were between five and six yearsold at the start of the study. We saw them each yearuntil they were between seven and eight years old.

• Study 2 looked at children who had received a fewyears of formal reading instruction (29 deaf and 31hearing children). They were between seven and eightyears old when we first saw them and we continued toassess them each year until they were between tenand 11 years old.

Every 12 months, each child was given a range of tasksmeasuring reading, spelling, phonological awareness,vocabulary, speechreading (silent lip-reading), short-termmemory and letter knowledge. Over 20 differenteducational establishments across the south-east ofEngland participated, including mainstream schools,specialist schools for the deaf and hearing-impairedprovisions attached to mainstream schools.

The deaf children were from mixed language andeducation backgrounds and included children whopreferred to use British Sign Language (BSL), those who spoke English and those who used a combination of the two.

Main findingsQ1: How do deaf children’s reading skills develop yearon year?The majority of the deaf children were delayed in theirreading attainment right from the start and did not makea full 12 months’ progress in reading ability in any yearthat we assessed them. However, reading progressgradually became slower and slower. Combining theresults from both studies we found that, on average, deafchildren make relatively adequate reading progress in the beginning stages (0.8 grade improvement in readingeach year) but gradually the gain in reading progressdrops to an average of only 0.3 grade improvement peryear. For example, at the beginning of the study, deafchildren aged seven to eight showed a mean readingdelay of 12 months but three years later, when the same children were leaving primary school, they wereexhibiting an average delay of 36 months. A few childrendid make a full 12 months’ progress each year and wewill discuss them in more detail later under question 3.

Figure 1 shows the word reading progress (in months)made by each deaf child who participated in Study 2. The red line shows the progress that the deaf childrenshould have made according to hearing norms (forexample, 36 months’ progress over a three-year period).However, as a group, the deaf children only made 13months’ progress in reading over the three-year period. It is important to note that there was enormous individualvariability within the deaf children’s reading and spellingachievements.



Foundations forliteracy Fiona Kyle and Margaret Harris discuss their longitudinal research

into deaf children’s reading development

Figure 1: Individual progress obtained on the singleword reading test in 36 months

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The deaf children exhibited even greater delays in their reading comprehension than in their word reading scores. The deaf children’s readingcomprehension skills were, on average, 13 monthsbehind their word reading ability.

Q2: Which cognitive skills predict literacy developmentin deaf children?We wanted to see if we could predict the hugeindividual variation in deaf children’s reading progress,as seen in Figure 1. The strongest predictors ofreading development over time were speechreadingability and English vocabulary knowledge. Importantly,this relationship was found for deaf children who were BSL users as well as those who used spokenlanguage. This was also true in the beginning stages ofreading with the five year olds and for those who hadreceived a few years of reading instruction (seven toeight year olds). Early alphabetic knowledge (letternames and sounds) was also important for beginningdeaf reading.

Deaf children’s spelling development was notpredicted by the same cognitive skills, suggesting thatreading and spelling might be fairly different processesin young deaf children.

Q3: What are the characteristics of successful deafreaders?In Study 2 we also looked at which cognitive skills orbackground factors could help deaf children becomegood readers. We found that those who had the mostage-appropriate reading skills by the time they leftprimary school all had good speechreading andknowledge of English vocabulary. In addition, they tended to have better levels of hearing, werediagnosed earlier and were more likely to have deafparents and/or to use speech. Interestingly, three of theseven children in the small reading delay group hadbeen exposed to high levels of BSL from an early age.

All these background factors contribute in some wayto language proficiency. This is through having deafparents, thereby having better communication andearly access to a functional language (sign language),or through having hearing parents but with either anearly diagnosis, thereby resulting in early languageinput, or a less severe hearing loss, thereby benefitingmore from intervention such as hearing aids. Thissuggests that proficient and early access to languageis necessary for reading ability in deaf children but thespecific modality of the language is not important.

Implications for Teachers of the DeafThe overall results suggest that a combination of goodspeechreading skills, knowledge of English vocabularyand good language ability (regardless of whether thelanguage is signed or spoken) could provide thefoundations for successful literacy development indeaf children.

Deaf children need to have good knowledge of Englishvocabulary when they are trying to read. It is importantfor ToDs, particularly in bilingual settings or signresources, to make sure that the children know theEnglish names of objects/items as well as the correctsigns. Speechreading provides a way of accessing thesound structure of spoken English and it is importantfor teachers to remember that signing deaf childrenalso make use of speechread information.

Our research highlights the importance of goodlanguage skills in deaf children. Essentially, it doesn’tmatter whether their language is speech or signbased; what is important is that they have a solidlanguage base!

Fiona Kyle is a senior research fellow in theDepartment of Experimental Psychology at theUniversity of Cambridge. Margaret Harris is Professorof Psychology and Head of Department at OxfordBrookes University.

Their research‘Concurrent correlates and predictors of reading andspelling achievement in deaf and hearing schoolchildren’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education,11 (3), 273–88 (2006).‘Predictors of reading development in deaf children: a

three-year longitudinal study’, Journal of ExperimentalChild Psychology, 107, 229–43 (2010).‘Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginningdeaf and hearing readers’, Journal of Deaf Studiesand Deaf Education (in press).


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The system of shape coding was developed by Susan Ebbels, who teaches children withlanguage impairment at Moor House School,

Surrey. The approach uses shapes, colours andarrows to make the structure of a sentence moreexplicit. For example, the structure of the sentence‘You drew a boy with a crayon’ is illustrated like this:

Although children at Moor House School havelanguage that may be disordered, they are able to understand analysis of sentence structure at arelatively sophisticated level. However, at St John’sSchool for the Deaf in Boston Spa most of our pupilshave limited knowledge of both vocabulary andstructure and consequently are not able to understandthis level of analysis.

Following a visit to Moor House School, we adaptedthe approach to meet the needs of the children at StJohn’s by simplifying the framework used by SusanEbbels.

In testing our pupils with the Wide Range IntelligenceTest (WRIT) we found that many of them were visuallearners. We decided, therefore, that many of ourchildren were more likely to achieve success withvisual learning tools, such as the shape codingdevised by Susan Ebbels.

With this in mind we worked on accessing the visuallearning of our deaf children, who are reluctant to putpen to paper, by providing visual scaffolding for theirsentence structure. To begin with we used five maincolour-coded visual scaffolds to help with writingsentences. Initially some of the colours we used forthe shapes linked to colours we already used in theMaternal Reflective Method reading texts – green forpronouns and red for verbs. This provided a link withprior learning and reinforced the concept of differentword classes. We found that over time, as pupilsbecame more confident with the shape coding, thecolour of the shapes became irrelevant and could be dropped. The shapes below are the ones weintroduced initially:

Using these on the interactive whiteboard (IWB) gavethe children the opportunity to see, in an interactive

way, how a sentence could be structured. All thevisual scaffolds were landscape, except the verbshape. This was portrait to make it stand out as animportant part of a sentence, and it is one which isvery challenging for deaf children due to its changingnature. Using shape coding to demonstrate sentencestructure helped the children to develop confidence inwriting sentences. At first we focused on simplesubject-verb-object sentences:

When the children were secure with the subject-verb-object structure, we introduced two further shapes:

The example below shows the use of these shapes to demonstrate how a simple subject-verb-objectsentence can be extended by including an adverb anda prepositional phrase:

Moving the time shape, as in the example below, neatlyillustrates that the word ‘yesterday’ can be written eitherat the beginning or end of a sentence:

Shape coding can also help children with the structureof writing instructions. Visually they are able to see thatthe verb goes first, for example in a science experiment:

As children developed confidence in simple sentencestructure we then introduced the jigsaw shape.

This shape is used for conjunctions as it joins simplesentences together to make compound and complexsentences, thus:

Tom and John were happy because they were at the cinema.



Shaping a sentence Pupils at St John’s School for the Deaf have been using colour-coded shapes to build a better

understanding of sentence structure. Mary McAleer explains the approach

Noun phrase (external argument)

Verb phrase

You

Who?What?

Verb What? Where? When?

drew a boy with acrayon

Noun phrase (internal argument)

With + nounphrase

Where? When?

Ye s t e r d a y t h e b o y a t e a c a k e i n t h e h a l l

B o i l t h e w a t e r i n a b e a k e r

Who?What?

Verb

Prepositional phrase Adverbial – when the event happened

T h e b o y a t e a c a k e

What?

T h e b o y a t e a c a k e i n t h e h a l l y e s t e r d a y

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As well as demonstrating sentence structure, shapecoding can also be used to highlight verb formation.We use a pupil’s verb book to illustrate the pattern inusing verbs and also to introduce new verbs. This isparticularly useful, for example, when introducing anew topic. In a topic about World War 2 some verbsused might be ‘to kill’, ‘to die’, ‘to fight’.

The verb book uses adouble-page spread withthe past tense of the verbon the right-hand side andthe present tense on theleft.

We introduced the conceptof sensible and silly verbs;the sensible being whenthe past tense is regular,and the silly for irregular

verbs. The example below is a sensible verb, ‘to ask’:

ie: ask asked(regular –ed ending,therefore a sensible verb)

The verb ‘to be’ is alwaysa difficult one for deafchildren. As it is anirregular verb we class it as a silly verb:

I am I was

(irregular present and pasttenses, therefore a sillyverb)

Recording verbs in thebook, using all thepersonal pronouns asabove, helps children torecognise, and then to

become familiar with, verb agreement and verbs inthe present and past tenses.

Verb morphology is indicated in shape coding using aseries of arrows:

These verb diacritics again optimise our pupils’ visuallearning to illustrate grammatical concepts.

Both shape coding and verb diacritics are effective

tools for demonstrating grammatical concepts and arealso very helpful to children when they proofread theirwork.

This is an example of a pupil’s sentence on the IWB.When the parts of the sentence are identified usingthe shapes, the pupil is immediately able to recognisethat the sentence has no verb.

In this second example, the verb diacriticsdemonstrate that the verb agreement is incorrect, ie:the boys = plural, was = singular form.

In this third example there are two verbs; the pupildiscussed which was correct and deleted was tocorrect the sentence.

The big question is ‘Does it work?’In her Master’s research, my former colleagueAngela Cordingley found that deaf children showedan improvement in writing scores using shapecoding. Her research also showed evidence ofchildren having a more positive attitude towardswriting. She says, ‘the use of the visual scaffoldappeared to assist many, especially those withvisual strengths, to improve both their word order insimple sentences and their verb use in narratives’.

Shape coding can be used with deaf children acrossthe ability range. Having used it and seen it work, I find it inspiring to see deaf children gaining theconfidence to talk about their written work. This is a successful method of intervention that is effectivein giving children a better understanding of thestructure of their writing and a tool with which toimprove it.

Mary McAleer teaches maths at St John’s School inBoston Spa and is also a specialist in supporting theliteracy development of deaf pupils with additionalspecial needs.


Past present singular plural

T h e b o y s w a s h a p p y

were

Harold in Norwaywas lived

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Iwork peripatetically in Kent as part of the SpecialistTeaching Service under the Physical and SensoryDimension. I started out as a visiting ToD and to be

honest the name has changed more than the job. Wework with babies from four weeks old to students whoare leaving school or college; however, here I willconfine myself to National Curriculum literacy levels.

When I started visiting, my work was mostly inmainstream and special schools. Mainstream visitswere usually individual sessions in the quietest area in the school. We worked on comprehension andgrammar as well as words and sounds that causedproblems, especially if the child had a high frequencyloss – usually blends, spellings as well as contractionsand other things that needed a little more explanation.We also spent time reading and, after working on thechild’s own school reader, we would have time tocontinue a story they wanted and discuss it on a one-to-one basis.

Special school work was sometimes individual, workingon words for topics but mostly alongside the classteacher, making the lessons more accessible, with BSLrather than Makaton signs for example, and using thesymbol system with the sign and picture to help clarifythe information. We now have more complex casesand may have a student with multi-sensory impairment(MSI) and profound and multiple learning difficulties(PMLD) to support. I have completed a seven-day MSIcourse and can combine this with my ToD knowledge.We are mostly advising, supporting and modellingstrategies for learning support assistants and keyworkers in special settings and schools.

Infant literacy support is mostly catching up, reviewingwhat has been done and checking understanding. Wepre-teach work that is ahead, so the child is familiarwith new vocabulary and has some backgroundknowledge in readiness for the new topic. I usepictures and non-fiction books to try and develop theinformation and back up what has been said in class.I also spend time working on the mathematicalvocabulary attached to the curriculum, which they canconcentrate on in a one-to-one situation and matchwith the calculation.

Junior sessions are spent reviewing and pre-teaching,but after a spelling has been learnt, time is spentintroducing other words that mean the same thing sothat the pupils have the opportunity to widen theirvocabulary using games. This helps to improve writingand class discussions.

Students tend to stay in local schools rather thantravel to the nearest lead school (HI unit as was) atsecondary transition. Their FM equipment moves withthem to continue improving the signal-to-noise ratio,but my concern is that the lack of a deaf peer groupreally affects the students’ social and mental health at Key Stage 3. In secondary schools we rely on the receptionist and often struggle to meet with theteachers themselves. If we have a plan of the term’swork and lists of new vocabulary in good time, thestudent is much better able to follow lessons. At thisage, students will say if they are struggling.

I have a profoundly deaf student in Year 9 in the localselective school which runs an accelerated curriculum.She has two excellent communication support workers(CSWs) who share the week, and a brilliant specialeducational needs co-ordinator (SENCO). She alsohas a speech and language therapist who has beenvisiting weekly to spend an hour on speech-relatedskills, such as lip-speaking, and provide little tips whichhave given the student so much confidence. Withoutthis team of devoted professionals she would not beable to access much of the curriculum at all. I visitonce or twice a week and we all communicate. It’sbeen a steep learning curve for everyone and the fastpace is a challenge. Initially, during in-service training I suggested inserting a map/diagram or picture into herPowerPoint presentations, which would clue her intothe subject, person or place being discussed far morequickly than waiting for the signer to do it. I was thenaccused of trying to simplify her lessons and goingback to infant work! We all know how much quicker itis to place something when it’s been seen rather thanrelying on the CSW to describe the change in topicvisually. If we have the information well before the



Literacy reportLindsay Taylor describes her work supporting literacy for hearing-impaired

pupils in Kent

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lesson, we can then work through it during one of herfour free lessons and I can email visual information toback up the text during the week. It helps the CSW toknow which bits of the lesson to focus on because atthis level, signing would be an unreadable blur ofspeed. The student and her CSWs have devised asign that they use if a teacher has wandered off thepoint!

Supporting literacy as a specialist teacher means that I can visit the pupil at most twice a week (complexcases and students with cochlear implants), butusually weekly, monthly or termly. Some yearsteachers are so inspired by having a deaf student in their class that they produce their own fantasticresources and classroom management that reallymake a difference for the pupil and his or herconfidence. Or we may have a teacher who eitherknows everything or says the child can hear and thenit’s a real struggle to keep the pupil positive and keen.

Recently we have changed our support criteria and nolonger visit children with mild or unilateral loss, norstudents with auditory processing disorder. If we did,our case lists would be endless. But we do carry outan initial visit, either to complete a report or offeradvice to the school and class teacher. Schools knowthey can contact us at any time to discuss a concern.Each pupil on our list will have an annual report,usually the term before they change class/school or atthe start of the term; those with statements will have areport in time for the annual review. We check hearinglevels and listening skills and also carry out somelanguage tests so that we have a level to showprogress. We use the British Picture Vocabulary Scale(BVPS) to give a level for vocabulary and Test forReception of Grammar (TROG), which shows where a child is in his or her understanding of grammaticalstructures. Both tests give results that inform teachersso they can address a specific area (for exampleplurals) in class or I can work on it individually ingames and activities when I visit.

Each report has an advice sheet attached as an A4sheet, which can be shared in school and copied asrequired. We can add to the sheets, so that theydirectly focus on literacy. The usual informationconcerns type of hearing problem and the equipment,seating, lighting, language levels and strategies thatwill help the student in class. It should be madeavailable to any supply teacher who takes the class.Class teachers are usually happy for the pupil to bewithdrawn, and every visit receive a written record ofvisit sheet, so that they can see what we have doneand discussed with the child. There is space foractions so that the teacher knows what is needed for the following week/visit.

Staff in Key Stage 3 tend to prefer an electronic visitsheet which can be emailed to the relevant staff, and

in Key Stage 1 and 2 I hand a paper copy to theteacher or leave it on the desk. The advice and visitsheet can be copied, as often the SENCO keeps acopy. I will also spend time with the pupil during onevisit, going through the wording of the advice andchecking if anything needs to be added or removed.The same is done if there are any changes in a child’scondition or hearing level so that teachers are awareas soon as possible that they might need to changethings in class.

The work is varied, challenging, enjoyable and veryinteresting. We are in the enviable position of seeinginside classrooms and observing teaching, so weknow if a child is well supported and engaged in thelesson. We work together with teachers, LSAs, CSWsand SENCOs and also check with parents that theyhave no concerns. But as with all children, the supportgiven at home for reading and talking and the sharingof experiences make an enormous difference to thelanguage and understanding in school. Locally wehave many children in school for whom English is asecond language, so many teachers are working onsimplifying classroom language and making meaningclearer, which is a bonus for our mainstream deafchildren too.

Lindsay Taylor works peripatetically as part of theSpecialist Teaching Service under the Physical andSensory Dimension in Kent.



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Suddenly the ship crashed into the wall.Suddenly a huge monster called ‘Mong’crashed through the wall and threw the ship

back to England killing 5 people. The rest fell intothe sea and survived. They were Ming, Luke, Lynn,Kevin and the captain. Kevin told them to collect asmany seaweed as they could and throw them atMong about 5 minutes later 2 of the people werekilled. Finally Mong died by the stanch of theseaweed! (A ten-year-old deaf boy)

At ten, this deaf boy is able to express hisimagination in writing. In this example he shows that he can provoke the curiosity and anxiety of the reader, provide an imaginative plot, incorporatemagical elements in the story, attribute humancharacteristics to subjects (monster) and giveoriginal solutions to problems. Janet Burroway’sbook Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craftexplains that when words in writing evoke sensesthen a new imaginative world is created which thereader can enter. But what is imagination? Why is it so important for children’s development? How dochildren express imagination in writing and what isspecial about deaf children’s imaginative writing?

The answers to these and other questions wereexplored in my research study, ‘Imaginative writingof deaf children’, which was part of my doctorate.Imagination in children – as perceived in this study – is the ability to discover various unrealisticsituations, to pretend, to think in the sphere of ‘whatif?’, to enter magical worlds and combine ideas in a unique and original way to explore unexpectedsituations. The source of imagination is reality,based on experience of the world, in which languageplays an important role. Imagination as the ability to explore alternative possibilities plays a veryimportant role in the cognitive development of children and emerges early in children’sdevelopment (pretend play). As imagination is basedon language and experience, one might expect thatdue to the underachievement of many deaf childrenin language and literacy, they might have limitedimagination or they might not be able to express it in writing.

To find out if this was true, I invited Teachers of theDeaf and deaf children in mainstream schools andunits/resource bases across the UK to take part inmy research. In total, 30 deaf children aged 9–11(moderate to profound with no additional disabilities)

of various academic abilities and 30 hearing children(matched by age and academic achievement) fromseven schools took part.

Children were asked to write three imaginativestories in the course of an academic year. Threebroad topics were given to them orally (using speechor signs):• Imagine that you have magic powers and that you

are able to be or do whatever you want. You haveto write a story about you and your magic power.You can have one or more magic powers.

• Imagine that you have just found an island. This isyour own island and it can be wherever you want itto be. It is an island of your imagination and it’syour island. Write a story about you and your ownisland.

• Imagine that you wake up one day, you go to thebathroom and look at yourself in the mirror and findthat you are an animal. You can be whateveranimal you want to be. Write a story about beingan animal for one day.

To analyse the children’s stories, an ‘imaginationstory scale’ was developed, based on the literatureand on the working definition of imagination, whichwas revised many times with the assistance ofteachers in order to be as accurate and appropriateas possible. The scale comprises four divisions:story structure, story plot, linguistic imagination andoriginality.

After scoring all 180 stories from both deaf andhearing children, it was concluded that deaf childrenhave imagination and are by no means stilted orunimaginative. Although the level of deaf children’simagination varied from child to child, there was no evidence to suggest that they lagged behind inimagination compared with hearing children. It ishoped that the results from this research can helpTeachers of the Deaf to see deaf children’s abilitiesin imaginative writing. Although the importance oflearning grammar and syntax is unquestionable, thepromotion of the cognitive abilities of deaf children is also important and needs to be perceived inrelationship to literacy achievements. This researchhas highlighted the importance of Teachers of theDeaf believing in deaf children’s imaginative abilities.It has revealed that deaf children can expressthemselves imaginatively on paper even withoutbeing given lots of stimuli, although the nature ofstimuli given did play a role in their imaginativeproductions. Once they felt free to write without



A bit of imaginationHow well do deaf children use their imagination in story writing? Emmanouela Terlektsi set out to

find the answer to this question

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worrying about grammatical mistakes, they createdstories coming straight from their imagination.Reading of literary texts, aesthetic reading, the roleof storytelling and reading aloud are some of thefactors than can influence children’s language skillsand writing.

Teachers of the Deaf can promote deaf children’simagination by providing objects to explore, involvingthe children in role play and giving them access to a range of fiction. Although ToDs have to pay a lot of attention to ‘building up’, which means that theteacher always provides the base for deaf children toexplore and express their imagination, it is equallyimportant to allow time and space for them to functionas independent thinkers and writers. The imaginationstory scale could potentially be a very helpful and easy tool for ToDs to use, enabling them to evaluatechildren’s stories based not only on conventionalwriting skills but also on ideas and imagination. So,give deaf children pens and paper, ask them to imagineand you might be surprised by what they come up with!

Emmanouela Terlektsi is a special needs teachercurrently working as a senior research assistant at the Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University ofSouthampton, leading the qualitative aspect of theHearing Outcomes project looking at the social and emotional development of deaf teenagers.She would like to thank her supervisors Linda Watsonand Liz Hodges and all the teachers and studentswho assisted her in her study.



An 11-year-old deaf girl

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Our logo for the Deafnessand Reading for Meaning(DReaM) project is no

accident. If we really couldunravel all the complex issuesand factors which influencedeaf children’s reading formeaning and then design the wonder intervention thiswould indeed surpass all ouraspirations. Nothing is morevexing in deaf education thandeaf children’s underachievement in reading and the barriers that this creates in terms of their social,linguistic and academic development. We know,however, that setting out on a research journey tosolve this would be pure fantasy and the wrong sort of dream. Instead, our ambition has been to take anapproach to research into deafness and reading formeaning which offers a different way of looking andseeing what is important and identifying what needs to be done.

This project exploring deafness and reading formeaning is driven by a review of the research, whichwe believe signals the need for a comprehensive,systematic and ecological investigation, bringingtogether what we know about deafness and readingand delivering actual outcomes quickly into the handsof practitioners. There are two pressing issues.

The first is that deaf children’s attainments in terms ofreading comprehension have not improved despitechanges in placement and language approach sincethe 1970s. The US data and UK data seem to remainin agreement that where large national samples arereported, which include older students, the majority ofdeaf students still leave school (18 years old) with amedian reading age of nine years.

The second issue is the lack of coherence andcompleteness in the research literature regarding ourunderstanding of the reading for meaning process fordeaf learners and what intervention approaches aresuccessful. We simply do not have the full pictureregarding how deaf children learn to read for meaning,what language skills they bring to the task and the fullrange of factors that influence their learning.

When it comes to the intervention research this lack ofconsensus is further puzzling given that reading is themost investigated area in deafness and learning. Theresearch is once again fragmented and there is a lack

of empirical evidence to support the development ofeffective practice. This lack of convergence in theresearch is ultimately problematic for teachers, who are unable to identify evidence-based methods forintervention.

The argument that underpins our project is that thereis a need for a broader perspective on deafness andreading for meaning which looks at the full ‘deafcomprehender’ profile and reflects the complex mix offactors involved. We have conceptualised this usingthe ecological model below. Urie Bronfenbrenner (The ecology of human development, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press 1979) developed theEcological Systems Theory to explain how everythingin a child and the child’s environment influences how a child grows and develops. This perspectivewidens our field of vision in terms of our theoreticalunderstanding of the learning foundations andprocesses and the development of intervention andassessment tools.

The aim of this project is to document a whole serviceview of the learning and teaching challenges insupporting deaf children’s reading for meaning. The project has three phases and we are currentlyanalysing data from the first phase, which involves the use of focus groups to obtain the views andexperiences of deaf and hearing classroompractitioners on:• challenges in reading for meaning for deaf learners

(such as text level, wider language experience,cognitive skills)



The DReaM projectNew research at the University of Leeds is aiming to identify the factors that impact on deaf

children’s reading comprehension, as Ruth Swanwick reveals

Model to explore the factors that influence deafchildren’s experience of reading for meaning

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• current approaches to teaching reading andlanguage (such as materials, knowledge andexpertise, language use, assessment)

• factors which influence reading comprehensionsuccess for deaf learners (at the level of the child,the task, the learning context and the widerenvironment and culture).

For phase one of the project, 30 practitioners wererecruited through the Leeds Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Team (DAHIT). This group comprised themajority of the teaching team currently supporting all the school-aged deaf pupils across the city. Thisincluded 16 Teachers of the Deaf (peripatetic andresource base), seven deaf instructors and sevencommunication support workers covering early years,primary and secondary settings.

DAHIT is a large scale city-wide local authority teamwhich currently supports 520 deaf children and youngpeople (0–19) from the point of diagnosis of deafnessto school and into the transition to college and work.Deaf children are supported in their education withintheir local mainstream early years setting, localmainstream school or within a resourced provision in a mainstream school. This support team of 40 staff is particularly skilled in promoting the inclusion of deaf children and young people in education through a sign bilingual approach to education andcommunication. This entails a broad language base

where planned instruction in both English and BritishSign Language is provided as appropriate andaccording to individual need.

For phase two of the project we are using the insightswe have gained from the practitioners to collect 30reading profiles of individual deaf children, whichexplore the range of reading abilities, experiencesand influencing factors in more depth across a broadspectrum of pupils. To complement this detailed pupilinformation, phase three will involve a review or auditof the current intervention and assessment practicesdeveloped thus far in this setting. This rich data aboutperceptions, pupils and processes will give us thebreadth and depth of information that we need inorder to see and describe the issues in the round andto identify directions for assessment and interventionfrom an ecological perspective.

The findings from this project will inform the directionand methodological approach for a wider study intothe intrinsic, direct and indirect factors that impact on a deaf child’s ability to read for meaning. This will entail a national investigation into the reading and language ability of deaf children to provide acomprehensive picture of diverse profiles within thedeaf school population. This breadth of data willenable the identification of the atypical resources andparticular learning strengths that deaf children bring to the reading process and the specific factors thatinfluence reading comprehension success for deaflearners.

As a research team of three we have been able to pool our skills and expertise from our differentdisciplines of deaf education, psychology andlinguistics to inform and shape the direction of theresearch. Part of this includes the development of aresearch approach and a methodology which is fit forpurpose. This we have done in consultation with thepractitioner participants in DAHIT, who have beeninstrumental in identifying the key research questionsand suggesting appropriate data collection methods at each stage.

We know that this will not lead to immediate and quick-fix solutions but it is still very much the DReaM projectbecause it is an endeavour that excites us: it is workthat really matters and that challenges and engagesresearchers and practitioners. In our case, we areprivileged to be working with a dynamic team in Leedson what we see as the preparatory phase for a nationalproject. This practitioner-researcher relationshipgrounds the project in practice and is the key toensuring that the direction of this particular dream istowards a realisable vision and not a flight of fancy.

Ruth Swanwick is a senior lecturer in deaf educationand the Programme Leader for the MA in DeafEducation (ToD) at the University of Leeds.



The DReaM team

Ruth Swanwick – a senior lecturer in deafeducation and the Programme Leader for theMA in Deaf Education (ToD), University ofLeeds.

Paula Clarke – a lecturer in childhood studiesand inclusive education, University of Leeds.

Ruth Kitchen – a research associate andproject support officer, MA in deaf education(ToD), University of Leeds.

This project has been funded by the School ofEducation at the University of Leeds. Visit theweb page for more information: www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/inclusive/projects.php?project=111&page=1

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The Sign Bilingual Consortium is a group ofprofessionals working to promote and supportbilingual deaf education in the UK through the

development and communication of good practice and relevant research. This group is committed toeducational provision for deaf children which isunderpinned by a broad language base and ensuresthat practitioners can recognise and appropriatelyrespond to the diverse and changing language andcommunication needs of all deaf individuals. The SignBilingual Consortium Steering Group meets regularlyto share good practice, organise seminars and discussdeveloping practice, policy and research initiatives(www.signbilingual.co.uk).

The current focus of the Sign Bilingual Consortium isreading. We are looking specifically at ways in whichaction research by teachers in schools can enhancethe reading experiences and outcomes of deaflearners. The Sign Bilingual Consortium Year ofReading was launched in October 2010 at theUniversity of Leeds in the School of Education. As wellas me, the other academics involved in facilitating andsupporting this practice-led research initiative arePaula Clarke and Ruth Kitchen, and we comprise the project team for the Deafness and Reading forMeaning (DReaM) project in Leeds (see page 14):www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/inclusive/projects.php?project=111&page=1/

This joint working across sign bilingual schools and services and the University established theresearcher-practitioner partnership from the outset of the Year of Reading. We see this collaboration asfundamental to research into deafness and learning.As part of the background to the project we havereviewed the areas of deafness and reading researchand intervention approaches. In reviewing this body of literature we identified what we currently know and don’t know about factors which influence thedevelopment of reading skills for deaf pupils, and the intervention approaches that work. Using thisreview of current research as a starting point, schoolsand services have developed a range of diverse andinteresting projects using a clear model of actionresearch to guide and develop the process wediscussed at the launch.

Between them, the projects capture the full range of experiences of all ages of deaf pupils across alltypes of educational settings and include the broadlanguage base which is so fundamental to the work of the sign bilingual schools and services.

Examples of some current action research projects• Researching the use of Visual Phonics by Hand

(developed at Longwill) as a method of makingphonemes visible to deaf children as an aid tospeechreading and reading.

• Incorporating the use of PSPs with ‘semacoded’books.

• Establishing a bespoke reading room and studyspace for deaf students.

• Undertaking a whole-service investigation into deafchildren’s reading for meaning from the practitionerperspective.

• Exploring the ways in which deaf children’s readingcan be enhanced by learning outside the classroom.

• Enhancing creative approaches to developingliteracy through the use of teacher and pupil‘learning journeys’.

• Harnessing teachers’ knowledge and experiencethrough action research to impact on developingpractice.

The unique feature of this work is that it is entirelypractitioner led as each school/service has developedone or more (in some cases several) action researchprojects to enhance deaf children’s reading experienceand outcomes in their own setting. The role of theUniversity team is to advise and guide the practitionersin the development of the action research and to helpthe group embed their action research within the widercontext of current research into reading and deafness.

The outcomes of the Year of Reading will not onlysupport the development of informed practice inschools but also develop the thinking and enquiry skillsof practitioners and encourage a first-hand engagementwith research. This way of working and the developmentof teacher-researcher trajectories are essential if we areto make headway in this area of deaf education, whichis still a challenge to us. In so many ways, practitionershold the key to the learning experiences of the pupilsand have the potential and insight to see andprecipitate development and change.

If you have questions about reading and deafness andareas that you would like to research, why not take partin this sign bilingual initiative and develop your ownaction research project in your setting? We would bedelighted to hear from you and to support your work.

Ruth Swanwick is the Programme Leader of the MAin Deaf Education (ToD) at the School of Education,University of Leeds and a Sign Bilingual ConsortiumResearch Partner.



The Year of ReadingRuth Swanwick explains how the Year of Reading is seeking to enhance deaf children’s

reading skills through a series of action research projects

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Literacy and numeracy are the very cornerstonesof our education. With them we can make senseof the world around us, express its beauty and

attempt to overcome its barriers; we can shape theworld we live in now, and for the generations to comewe can leave an indelible legacy of who we are.

Even with an army of passionate, caring teachers –‘the magic weavers’ as educational trainer Sir JohnJones called them – the one area that we can allagree on is that worryingly low levels of literacy stillprevail, especially among deaf children.

Canadian ToD and trainer Professor Connie Mayermaintains that storytelling is integral from language toliteracy. When we see a picture of Goldilocks, we cantell or sign the whole story because we already knowit. When seeing the story written in a language wedon’t know, then the story is unrecognisable becausewe don’t have enough references. If we see the samestory again in a language we know a little of, we can pick out some key words and guess at othersbecause we are able to transfer our knowledge of the story onto the written words.

The inner voiceThe key to telling a good story is having a store of language to enrich it and add depth and colour. This stock is down to growing up immersed in rich,consistent and fluent language with competentmodels to learn from; typically that’s mum and dad at home. We then internalise or take personalpossession of our home language, whether spoken or signed. We have an inner voice.

The hearing child in a hearing family or any child with signing parents is in the ideal place to absorblanguage. In fact, in those combinations, a child whodoesn’t develop language is one exposed to somedegree of neglect. So what about the deaf child of

hearing parents? If hearing aids, cochlear implants orother technical solutions aren’t providing full access,what then? The advice given seems to be: ‘If he can’t hear enough spoken language with the latestaids/implants, let’s start using his eyes and hands tosign.’ But can the parents be the previously describedcompetent linguistic role model? If you are talkingabout sign language, the answer is probably no.

If a six-year-old child’s receptive vocabulary isestimated at approximately 22,000 words, that’s alearning average of 3,600 words a year, 70 words a week, or 15 words a day. Every day, five days aweek! (Weekends are generously given off.) That’s an awful lot of pressure on parents, because theyknow that without that number of signs being ready to hand, they will be the ones holding their own childback….

But let’s imagine that one parent actually attains thatlevel. That’s still only one person in the family. All theothers – the brothers and sisters, the aunts, unclesand grandparents – are surrounding the child with a language he or she is lip-reading with only 35%accuracy. It is an immense struggle to build the all-important wealth of vocabulary – and be on targetfor Key Stage 1 assessment!

The transfer of language to literacyWe can all appreciate the problems with the transferof minimal language to literacy; what about phonics?That means using the child’s 44 internalised soundsor phonemes of English (if the deaf child has them!)and matching them to the alphabetic code that relates to that sound. Unfortunately, phonics withoutinternalised language will not be enough to ensureliteracy.

Many hearing children struggle with theinconsistencies of the written word – why are ‘kitty’



Making visual sense of languageLearning to use Cued Speech with confidence and efficiency can open doors to literacy for deaf

children, according to Nicholas Orpin

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and ‘city’ written like that? Can word and bird reallyrhyme? As for bear and hear… well that’s just plaindaft, isn’t it? So if it’s hard for hearing children, withfully internalised English, how does the deaf childcope?

To be honest, it’s no longer shocking to meet differentgenerations of deaf people who have pretty muchgiven up on the whole notion of literacy. Attempts atreading and writing are a painful memory of ‘beingforced’ to do something well within their capacity butout of their reach and, sick of being bottom of theclass, these people have turned their back on it all. It’s as if for some, a low level of literacy hasdangerously become an acceptable part of theiridentity.

The eyes have it!What if there was a specially designed solution thatmade visual sense of English for all children, includingsigners – and one which could be learnt so quicklythat access to the home language need not bedelayed?

That’s what drove Dr Richard Orin Cornett in hisbeliefs. He looked at how the sounds of the languageappear on the lips. He wanted to make the lip shapesvisibly clearer and he developed a handshape (cue)that would accurately distinguish bilabials (consonants

articulated with both lips). By giving the samehandshapes to naturally different consonant lipshapes (/m/, /t/ and /f/ have the same handshape), he could economise on the volume of the system andhave all the consonants represented in eight distinctshapes. He assigned four places near the mouth tothe vowels, called it Cued Speech and… it worked.

It gives deaf children born into hearing families thevisual access to language that their hungry mindshave been waiting for. The children can rely on everysingle part of that cued information to build their owninner voices. If complete bilingualism is a goal, it alsogives the space, time and freedom for the parents to learn to sign at a reasonable pace, safe in theknowledge that their child isn’t suffering from isolationin the meantime.

Despite its simplicity and relative ease to learn, CuedSpeech has never been in widespread use with deafchildren in the UK. It could be that the name, CuedSpeech, conveys a false impression that the system is designed to develop speech instead of English andreading. If that’s true, then it can easily be rectified.Cued language or cued English can mean the samething. The important thing is to focus on what itachieves, rather than its name.

Cued Speech (or cued English) is a deaf person’s tool par excellence – one that family members orprofessionals can use with efficiency and confidence.It is language learning beyond hearing. It means thatthe embattled hearing parents can give the gift of theirexperience, language and family heritage visually totheir child. It can combine with amplification aids orwhatever communication choice the family makes.Also, because the language which the deaf childaccesses through Cued Speech is phoneme-based, it ties in perfectly with literacy and phonics.

For the signing family, with their child growing up intheir rich heritage, cueing English is the respectful,deaf-friendly, visual way to open the door to English(without necessarily ever having to speak it) and thechild can become fully literate without force.

I haven’t mentioned teaching numeracy yet, andmaybe now there isn’t any need to, because once the language has been internalised, then the barrierssimply dissolve.

If you’ve got an eye and a hand, you’ve potentially gotaccess to every spoken language in the world. Nowisn’t that a technique worth 20 hours of anyone’s timeto learn and use?

Nicholas Orpin is the Development and FundraisingOfficer with the Cued Speech Association. He can becontacted at [email protected].



Research on Cued SpeechInternational research shows that Cued Speechachieves change on two fronts:Easy communication and belonging at home –deaf adults brought up with Cued Speech havehigh levels of self-esteem and self-confidence,which they credit to Cued Speech. The vastmajority feel that they were always included infamily conversations and activities during childhood.Literacy – deaf children with consistent access toCued Speech have literacy levels equal to thoseof hearing children and they can learn to readusing the same phonetic techniques.

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We know that some deaf children find theacquisition of English very difficult, especiallywhen unable to hear some sounds and

thus vocalise them. Many naturally lean towardscommunicating visually and their world is built on visualcues, so to enhance this process of learning, Deafaxresources are visually rich, with high level usage ofimages, animations and icons, then filmed in BSL andEnglish.

Despite significant advances in hearing aids, cochlearimplant technology, intervention services and a greaterawareness of the effects of deafness, language delayremains a problem for many deaf children. The lack of meaningful interactions, coupled with limitations inacquiring information incidentally, often leads to youngdeaf people having poor conversational skills, limitedvocabulary and restricted conceptual knowledge.Reduced language and cognitive skills in turn negativelyaffect social and emotional development, as well as reading and academic development. Deafyoungsters seldom bring to their learning experience thesame extensive language, conceptual or experientialknowledge as their hearing peers, and the impact of hearing loss is inherently isolating.Furthermore, there is still a significant gap between the examination achievements of deaf children and their hearing peers.

At Deafax we know that literacy and numeracy arepivotal to the success of young deaf people trying tolearn fundamental life skills. This means that clarity and relevance are always priorities in the creation and delivery of our resources. We place stress on the critical importance of purpose when learning, so interms of language acquisition we consider the functionsfor which communication and language are to be used,rather than teaching them in isolation. We believe thathealthy language development occurs in environmentsrich in interactions. We also believe in the power of technology, harnessed as part of the learningenvironment and used to engage learners of all ages,whatever communication difficulties they have.

As part of our Visual Learning website(www.visuallearning.org.uk) we are developing a series of online deaf-friendly resources to help improve

literacy/writing andnumeracy skills as well as strengtheningself-confidence andincreasing knowledge.The first three – E-Lit,Money Matters andCredit Crunch – are

shortly to be uploaded.All of them have a real-life application, such asform filling, banking andsecurity. E-Lit includes asection on language, forexample History of SignLanguage; Signed

Languages of the World; Written Sign Language;Spoken Language, as well as dealing with languagelearning, for example Language and SentenceStructure, which includes consonants and vowels;Articles, Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs;Acronyms, Antonyms, Homonyms, Homophones,Synonyms. All are given the special Deafax deaf-friendlytreatment – animations, icons and images – and arethen filmed in BSL and English.

We live in financiallydifficult times.Responding to theimpact of the globaleconomic downturn,Deafax has developed a new resource as partof its Money Matters

series, on how to cope during a credit crunch, how tobudget, and other important topics such as debt, work,pensions, insurance, housing, loans, banking andbenefits. An interactive budgeting game allows studentsto select budgeting choices against different wage levelsand then forces them to pay for their lifestyle within agiven timescale. This helps users to understand thereality of their spending choices. Unfortunately, withoutthis knowledge, many individuals who are deaf do notdevelop essential skills and are more likely to beunemployed, underemployed or reliant on benefits.

It is a challenge to find ways to increase the successrate and opportunities to achieve for those deaf youngpeople we work with. Given the connection betweenearly adolescence and future well-being, we have been able to use our deaf-friendly resources to createopportunities to intervene at an important turning point in their lives and help to prevent them makingdetrimental choices, redirecting them so that they areprepared for life beyond school. Skills involving effectivecommunication, decision making, problem solving, self-determination and self-advocacy are all critical and these modules help to develop those skills. Try thematerials for yourself, and let us know how you get on – contact [email protected].

Helen Lansdown is the Chief Executive Officer ofDeafax.



Words and numbersHelen Lansdown features some new resources from Deafax that will help

deaf young people master literacy and numeracy, the building blocks of life

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Dyscalculia is a relatively recently recognisedcondition in which the sufferer has a specificdifficulty with learning and using mathematics.

The issue is controversial and there are conflictingviews on what dyscalculia is, how it presents andhow it impacts on the sufferer in both the classroom and everyday life. Currently, the Department forEduation gives the definition of dyscalculia as:‘A condition that affects the ability to acquirearithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners mayhave difficulty understanding simple numberconcepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbersand have problems learning number facts andprocedures. Even if they produce a correctanswer or use a correct method, they may do so mechanically and without confidence.’(DfES, 2001)

This definition, however, sheds little light on what constitutes dyscalculia when present in theclassroom. According to Brian Butterworth in hisbook Dyscalculia Guidance: Helping Pupils withSpecific Learning Difficulties in Maths (David FultonPublishers), dyscalculia may present as: • a poor or complete lack of ability to subitise (the

ability to ‘see’ small numbers without counting) • an inability to remember mathematical facts, for

example an inability to learn times tables or tocount backwards

• an inability to apply logic and reasoning to a rangeof arithmetical and/or mathematical problems. Forexample, a dyscalculic child would not be able to

apply reasoning to decide to use multiplicationwhen buying three apples which cost 15p each.

Factors preventing dyscalculia from beingrecognised may be: • a wider social acceptance of poor arithmetic

(much more so than illiteracy) • variation in the rate at which children’s conceptual

understanding develops.

What are the impacts?The problem is extensive for a sufferer when theNational Curriculum (NC) and associated levels areconsidered. For example at NC level 2, a child isexpected, among other things, ‘to be able to countreliably’, including ‘reordering numbers up to 10’ and‘to use mathematics as an integral part of classroomactivities’. For a dyscalculic child, this expectation isnot reasonable.

Dyscalculia clearly needs addressing in schools. At Knightsfield School, a Dyscalculia InterventionProgramme is being established with the specificaim of enabling dyscalculic children to employarithmetical skills to yield a correct answer andinterpret it appropriately.

The Knightsfield Dyscalculia InterventionProgramme The programme was initiated after some pupils wereidentified as having specific difficulties with maths.On inspection, their Middle Years InformationSystem (MidYIS) results showed that their mathsresults were significantly lower than in othersubjects. It was also noted that some pupils werestruggling not just with the language, as would beexpected of deaf children, but with the numericalelement, even at a very basic arithmeticalcalculation level. It was subsequently agreed thatthis issue should be formally addressed within theNumeracy Plan for the Specialist Status. With this, a teacher was employed, funded by the SpecialistStatus money, to provide specific additional supportfor these weaker pupils. This support evolved into a structured support programme, now named theDyscalculia Intervention Programme (DIP).

What the programme offers and its deliveryThe programme is delivered by the specialist schoolteacher in 20–30-minute sessions. If the pupil isfound to be exhibiting dyscalculic tendencies, BrianButterworth’s Dyscalculia Guidance book is used.The pupils then follow the book’s structure and

Specific maths difficulties Knightsfield School’s Dyscalculia Intervention Programme is helping to identify and support deaf

pupils who struggle with maths. Andrea Louie Ruck and Nicholas Ronayne have the details

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activities as prompts for the learning and developmentobjectives. As the pupil progresses through the book,time can be taken as needed on areas they particularlystruggle with. Conversely, if a pupil is more able in anarea, only a little time need be spent. However, allaspects are covered to ensure that their knowledge is significant, and that pupils are not employingavoidance strategies.

Each of the sessions has a themethat relates to the whole-classlearning objective

Maths lessons at Knightsfield are mixed ability,therefore the sessions are delivered in a separateclassroom for about 20 minutes during the pupil’snormal maths lesson. For the remaining lesson timethe pupil integrates with the rest of the class, workingon the same topic but significantly differentiated work.

Each of the sessions has a theme that relates tothe whole-class learning objective. The programmeis designed to cater for the weaknesses of eachindividual as identified in the results from theDyscalculia Screener, while ensuring that they arestill capable of engaging in the main lesson and arenot isolated from their peer group.

Areas covered in Dyscalculia Guidance are:• the number system, including counting and the

written number system• calculation facts and thinking strategies, including

the four basic operations. Times-tables are alsocovered

• working with larger numbers (two-digit additionand subtraction).

Other aspects include smaller topic areas such asfractions, time, measurement and word problems.

Identification of dyscalculiaSince the programme has developed it has beenfound that no single piece of data is able to identifypupils as dyscalculic, therefore we use a range ofsources including:• MidYIS data (in particular the maths result) • in-class observations• the Dyscalculia Screener.

Each of these data sources helps to provideevidence for dyscalculia.

Middle Years Information System (MidYIS) dataThis data comes from the tests which every pupiltakes on entry to Knightsfield. It aims to form abaseline for value-added measures in secondaryschools. The pupils take the test in all the key subjectareas, including maths. A score is then produced,which can be compared within the school.

In terms of the DIP, the maths score of each child is compared with their scores in other subjects. A comparatively low score in maths can indicatespecific learning difficulties within the subject itself,ie dyscalculia.

The Dyscalculia ScreenerThe Dyscalculia Screener is a computer-based test,developed by Brian Butterworth, which aims toidentify dyscalculia. It comprises several sectionswhich test different aspects of mathematical andnumerical knowledge and ability. Each of the sectionsis done against the clock in order to test reaction andprocessing time. To minimise distortion from weakcomputer skills, all responses require only one pressof any button – either with the left- or right-hand sideof the keyboard, as the answer requires. The sectionsof the test are briefly described below.

Dot enumeration – Pupils compare a randomlyscattered pattern of dots on one side of the screenwith a numeral on the other side. The capacity toidentify a number of dots without counting is calledsubitising numerosity. The more able a pupil is tosubitise, the more successful he or she will be inthe test. The capacity for estimating small numbersis critical to learning to count.

Number comparison (numerical stroop) –Pupils are asked to select the larger of two numbers.Being able to order numerals requires a fluentunderstanding of numbers. The numerals are ofrandomly sized typeface, thus further testing thechild’s ability to read and interpret the numeralrather than the font.

Arithmetic achievement – For younger pupils thisis only addition. However, pupils aged ten and overhave both addition and multiplication tests. Thesums are shown on the screen with an answer andthe pupil has to identify whether it is correct or not.Reaction times are crucial, as they can distinguishbetween a pupil who retrieves facts from memoryand one who spends time calculating the answer.

In-class observationsIn-class observations regarding a pupil’s ability are made by the teachers. Observations in class of the child’s work, participation and homework allcontribute to an understanding of whether a childhas a specific difficulty. The observations areinformal. However, any observations that mayindicate a learning difficulty are noted in the child’sassessment folder.

Once clear evidence of dyscalculia is seen, the pupilbegins the Dyscalculia Intervention Programme.Pupils who have knowledge gaps in maths and/orlack confidence in certain areas also receive one-to-one sessions focusing on their specific needs.

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The activitiesThe activities undertaken vary depending on thelearning objective of the whole class and thespecific needs of the child. The general ethos of the sessions is to engage the pupil by making thesessions fun. All the pupils identified to be in needof this support have exhibited a general dislike ofmaths which, when considering that they strugglewith the subject and have demonstrated little abilityto understand it, is not surprising.

The activities themselves come from the BrianButterworth’s Dyscalculia Guidance book and arefollowed in order, although teachers adapt andrelate them to the overall class learning objective.

There have been significantimprovements in self-esteem andwillingness to participate

The book starts by covering basic numerical skillssuch as counting, securing the knowledge ofnumerosity and the number system. It thenprogresses to undertaking calculations andpractising thinking strategies, empowering pupils touse and apply their knowledge. It contains most ofthe resources needed, such as photocopiable gameboards and puzzles. However, the DIP has beensupplemented by other recommended resources,such as the Numdrum, the Nintendo DS and theNational Strategies’ interactive teaching programs.All of these resources aim to ensure that thedelivery remains varied, interesting and fun.

ResultsThe results of the programme so far have beenpromising, although they must be treated withcaution as the programme is new and the lastingimpact is unknown. So far, however, a very distinctdifference has been seen in the attitude of thepupils involved. There have been significantimprovements in self-esteem and willingness toparticipate. The pupils are accessing the whole-class lessons more easily. This is most likely acombined result of improved knowledge from theDIP sessions and improved self-esteem, allowingthem to focus and concentrate more as they beginto believe they are able to take part. End of unit test results show that the pupils are making betterprogress, and inspection of the test papers showsthat pupils are increasingly attempting morequestions.

More time and monitoring of progress are nowneeded to see how the pupils develop and cope. As with all teaching, the DIP sessions will beimproved over time using continued reflection andevaluation of the sessions themselves, and theprogress of the pupils. Keeping abreast of new

technological developments and current researchwill also help to ensure that the pupils remainengaged.

ConclusionsDyscalculia remains a very controversial issue among teaching professionals. The existence of amathematical specific learning difficultly is generallyaccepted, but the clarity of what constitutesdyscalculia is poor. This has led to a confused beliefof what dyscalculic children are able or not able todo, and more importantly how it presents in theclassroom. There are a number of tests availablewhich claim to assist in the diagnosis of dyscalculia;however, these provide only part of the picture. Inturn this has led to very different approaches intackling the issue. Knightsfield School has attemptedto combine the available resources and knowledgeof other professionals to provide a structuredprogramme adaptable to the needs of the child. The results of the programme appear positive.However, the long-term impact on children’smathematical, numerical and logical ability is as yet unknown. Continuation of the programme andmonitoring of the children involved will in timeprovide evidence and support for future dyscalculicsufferers.

Andrea Louie Ruck is the mathematics co-ordinatorfor Knightsfield School. Nicholas Ronayne is amathematics teacher, also at Knightsfield School.

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Deaf children lag behind hearing children inmathematics from an early age. Some of the key concepts that hearing children learn

informally, before starting school, are still challengingfor deaf children after one or even two years ofschool. These concepts form the basis for themathematics that children learn in primary school.So, starting school without a sound knowledge ofthese concepts, deaf children are at a disadvantage.

With the support of the RNID and the NDCS, wedesigned an early intervention programme thatteachers can use to promote the children’s learningof these key concepts in school. We then assessedthis programme in two studies in which the teacherstaught the children these basic concepts in their first or second year in school. The children wereassessed in mathematics learning using thePerformance Indicators in Primary School –Mathematics (PIPS), an assessment designed byPeter Tymms and his colleagues at the University ofDurham, which has been adapted for use with deafchildren. The children were assessed twice, the firsttime before they started the teaching programme(the pre-test) and the second time (the post-test)after the teachers had used this early interventionprogramme for about six months. The projectchildren’s results were compared to the results of agroup of children who were not taught about the keyinformal mathematical concepts.

In both studies, the project children improvedsignificantly more than the comparison group fromthe pre-test to the post-test. They improved by sevenpercentile points more than expected from their pre-test scores. Their mathematics learning wasaccelerated because they had conquered some of the key concepts needed for understandingmathematics in primary school.

Three concepts are the core of this early interventionprogramme: • additive composition• the inverse relation between addition and

subtraction• multiplicative reasoning.

Additive composition refers to the fact that anynumber can be seen as the sum of two othernumbers. Without this concept, children cannot

understand a number system; they cannotunderstand, for example, that 13 is not just the wordthat follows 12 when you are counting and that it isthe same as 10 + 3.

The inverse relation between addition andsubtraction is crucial for understanding manyaspects of mathematics in primary school. Forexample, it is necessary for understandingsubtraction with borrowing: when you subtract 23from 312 and you need to borrow 10, the value of312 is not changed when you write it is as:

because the subtraction from the tens column iscancelled by the addition to the units column. Theinverse relation between addition and subtraction isalso necessary in problem solving. For example, inthe problem, ‘Ali had some sweets; her friend gaveher five sweets; now she has eight. How many sweets did she have before?’, the children need tounderstand the inverse relation to know that the storyis about getting more sweets but the calculationrequired to solve the problem is a subtraction.

Multiplicative reasoning is also required in manysituations in primary school. In order to understandour number system, children need to realise that thedigit 2 in 23 does not represent the same quantity as in the number 312. In the tens column, digitsrepresent their value multiplied by ten. This can be easily understood in an informal way, withoutlearning multiplication tables, if children learn, forexample, to exchange one 10p coin for ten 1p coins.

The early intervention programme we tested includesmany activities related to these three concepts. Theactivities are designed to help the children reasonabout quantities, not to practise sums. The childrenhave plenty of opportunity to use these concepts,which are not presented in a sequence but asinterwoven strands that build on each other.

For example, they start to learn about additivecomposition and multiplicative reasoning by playinggames in which they exchange coins of smallervalues, such as two 1p coins for one 2p coin, andcompose small sums such as 3p by adding togetherone 2p coin and one 1p coin. The insight that they needto have here is that two sets of coins may have different



Mastering the keyconceptsTerezinha Nunes describes an early intervention designed to improve deaf

children’s mathematical learning

0 13 1 2

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numbers of coins but the same amount of money. Asthey make more progress in additive composition andstart to use exchanges that involve 10p and 20p coins,they can also reason multiplicatively about place valueand solve simple multiplicative reasoning problems. At the same time, they can solve problems about theinverse relation between addition and subtraction usinglarger numbers.

The teaching of all concepts starts with teacher-ledactivities, in which the teachers introduce theconcepts. An example of a teacher-led activity usedto introduce the inverse relation between additionand subtraction is presented schematically in thefigure above. The teacher allows the children tocount the number of bricks in a row – in this case,six bricks. The bricks are then hidden under a clothand only the ends of the row remain visible. Theteacher then adds bricks of a different colour as shesays or signs ‘I am now adding eight bricks’, makesa pause, and then subtracts the same number asshe says or signs ‘I am now subtracting eight bricks.’Finally, the teacher asks how many bricks are nowunder the cloth. The children should answer thequestion without counting and then check theanswer by removing the cloth and counting. Theyshould then discuss how they knew the answer tothis question. This is an easy item, as the bricksadded and subtracted are the same ones and are ofa different colour from those in the original row. Sothe children can see that the row did not change.The problems become progressively more difficult asthe teacher adds, for example, five and takes awayfour, leaving an extra brick in the row. They alsobecome more difficult when the bricks are added toone end and taken away from the other. Finally, thecolour cues are removed and all the bricks are thesame colour. Teacher-led activities are complementedby board games and computer games, played afterthe teacher has already introduced the concept. The next figure illustrates how the inverse relation isexplored later on, using word problems. The problemis presented in the child’s language of instruction,oral or signed, with the support of pictures. In thisexample, the child is told that there were nine redbooks in a box. The teacher put five green books

into the box and the children took four of the redbooks out. How many books are there in the boxnow?

The teachers and children enjoyed the activities inthis programme. More importantly, their progress in mathematics, as assessed by a standardised test designed completely independently of theresearchers, was accelerated during the six monthsin which they participated in the programme. Formore information, and to download the programme,visit www.education.ox.ac.uk/ndcs/index.php/

Terezinha Nunes is the Chair of Educational Studiesat the Department of Educational Studies, Universityof Oxford. Peter Bryant, Deborah Evans, RossanaBarros and Diana Burman of the University of Oxford were also part of the team working on thisprogramme.



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It is well known that students have widely differentlearning styles. For most this will be a combinationof visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. To allow the

students in your class to achieve to their maximum it is essential to know what type of learners they are.There will always be someone who finds it hard tograsp a concept and it can often be that an alternativeapproach is needed if they are a different type oflearner.

There are now many different sites on the internetthat host some excellent visual resources for use on the interactive whiteboard (IWB). An example iswww.teacherled.com/ We have used the temperaturecomparison resource to reinforce negative numbers,‘greater than/less than’ and ‘difference between’ in amuch more interesting and engaging manner thanwould have possible with a paper-based exercise. It is also cross-curricular in that it brings in geographyand a discussion about why the temperatures vary so much.

A different example is www.echalk.co.uk/ Althoughthis requires a subscription, it has some excellent IWB

resources. For a GCSE lesson on rotations, theprogram provides several options that allow thestudent to see easily what is happening. This exampleshows a rotation of 90° anti-clockwise about theorigin.

We have found that some students have realproblems with subtraction and, in particular, withborrowing within decomposition. The usual methodshave been tried, such as writing it out or using blocksand rods and counters, but it has been much easierwith the use of visual aids on the IWB.

One website that has a very good visual aid for this iswww.enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/activity.jsp?sid=nlvm&cid=3_1&lid=155/ This can also be found by googling‘base block subtraction’. It enables students to seeexactly what is happening when tens and 100s are borrowed, how they decompose into units andtens and how the subtraction can be carried outsuccessfully.

We have found that for students who arepredominantly visual learners, this resource has made a big difference to their understanding. Prior to this, students often subtracted the smaller numberfrom the larger number, which is a common mistakefor those who do not understand the process. The useof this program enables students not only to see whatis happening but also to experiment for themselvesand to try in an environment that is non-threateningand supportive.

Students can choose any twonumbers they want, includingdecimals, or they can allow thecomputer to choose for them.Immediately the numbers arebroken down by place value so

that in this example we have 66 – 47. It can be seenthat there are more red counters than blue and so wehave to borrow.

By dragging one block of tenacross to the units column theprogram splits this into ten unitsstraightaway. We can then performthe subtraction by matching pairsof red and blue counters together.

This is done by click and drag. At the same time thewritten sum changes to show that one ten has beenborrowed from the tens column.



Numeracy on the IWBAt St John’s School for the Deaf, students have been using visual resources on the interactive

whiteboard to aid their understanding of numeracy. Geoff Goddard and Mary McAleer highlight

some of the best websites they have discovered for this purpose

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The completed subtraction in theunits column is then displayed andwe can move on to subtracting theblocks of ten by matching pairsagain.

The completed sum is then shownwith both the visual display andthe written calculation.

This has proved to be an efficientand easily accessible method

of demonstrating borrowing within subtraction forstudents who find written methods alone difficult tounderstand.

Of course, it is also possible tomake your own visual resources.We use an IWB with Smartboardv10 installed on it and the lessonactivity toolkit. This kit is essentialand can be down loaded from the

Smartboard website. The range of tools and templatesthat are available to customise is impressive and theonly limit is your own imagination.

This shows that the toolkit has been installed withinthe gallery section of Smartboard.

An example of the potential isgiven here. The topic is unitswithin a Year 9 GCSE lesson. Byclicking on any of the differentcoloured rectangles the answer isdisplayed as the tile turns over.

This page required the student to drag the correct unit to eachcolumn. It could then be checkedautomatically using the checkbutton.

There is almost no end to the number of visual aidsthat can be developed for the Smartboard. Thebiggest limiting factor is time!

Geoff Goddard is the Head of Maths at St John’sCatholic School for the Deaf in Boston Spa. MaryMcAleer teaches maths and is a specialist insupporting the literacy development of deaf pupilswith additional special needs.



Acquiring maths skills For deaf students struggling with numeracy, Functional Skills Maths could provide the boost they

need, says Jenny Baxter

The Functional Skills (FS) Maths qualificationsare designed to give learners the skills to operate confidently, effectively and

independently in education, work and everyday life.Does this aim not underpin ToDs’ work with deaflearners? Furthermore, would anyone dispute theperceptions of employers that many learners arenot achieving a sufficiently firm grounding in thebasics? FS Maths is becoming recognised byemployers as evidence of the problem-solving andcommunication skills needed to perform effectivelyin the workplace.

FS Maths can be taught within different pathways.Levels 1 and 2 fit neatly with both Key Stage 3 and GCSE maths. FS Maths can also be offered at Key Stages 3 and 4 and in post-16 studies as astand-alone qualification, earning points equivalentto half a GCSE at Level 2. Within BTEC, thequalification can be offered in a more vocationalcontext, auguring well for all learners’ achievements,since research has shown that vocational contextsare a successful platform for the applied teachingand learning of maths. Students on Diplomacourses must achieve FS Maths, English and ICTto gain the full diploma, while those enrolled on

apprenticeships need to have, or to achieve, atleast FS Maths Level 1. Each exam tests threeskills: interpreting, analysing and representing.

ToDs supporting deaf learners in FS Maths are bestplaced to assess its effectiveness in delivering thedesired results for their students, but certain issuesstruck me most forcibly while working as a modifierfor FS Maths at Edexcel. I imagine that probablyany development work on this exam by Edexcelreflects the practice of the other awarding bodies.

On the positive side• The exam is offered eight times a year, enabling

students to be entered for it when judged to beready.

• There are three themed sections to each writtenpaper, with a logical progression through the storyline that helps students to ‘tune in’ to the purposeof each question within any section.

• The mark scheme is extremely tolerant. It isdesigned to find ways of crediting students forany knowledge displayed; for example, marks can be gained for recognising the required operationor for identifying the figures needing to bemanipulated, even if the answer is wrong or if the

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• operation isn’t completed. If the marker canlocate a correct answer in the body of theworking out, even if the candidate has not writtenit at the end of an operation or an explanation,the answer is credited as correct.

• There is a practical purpose behind each questionwhich, ideally, deaf candidates should be able to recognise and, as a consequence, feelcomfortable in performing the required operation.

ToDs can anticipate the languagetheir students are likely toencounter

• The guidance on how to respond is consistent. Forexample, all questions are presented in a lozenge-shaped box. Candidates are directed to use alarge box for workings out by the instruction ‘Usethe box below to show clearly how you got youranswer’ or similar demand, while the notepad iconindicates that candidates are required to show allworking out in order to gain full credit for a correctsolution.

• Within each paper, candidates are asked to showhow they can check their answer, and they areasked to explain their answer. Although thesedemands can be difficult for deaf learners torespond to, ToDs can use examples from pastpapers to give deaf learners classroom practice,performing a reverse operation which satisfies thefirst demand, although teaching candidates howto give an explanation can be more challenging.

• No theme can be used for consecutive exams oreven for exams in the same half year. However, if a particular theme, such as ‘pets’ is set in onepaper the next exam could have ‘animals’ as oneof its themes. The most common themes appearto be leisure, holidays, DIY, personal fitness,employment and healthcare. As a consequence,ToDs can anticipate the language their studentsare likely to encounter and teach it to help preparestudents for an exam. In addition, any ToD whotrawls through past papers to identify frequentlyused language will quickly realise that candidatesneed to know the terms ‘calculate/calculations’;‘compare’; ‘decide’; ‘book’ (verb); ‘hire’ (verb);‘correct’; ‘per’; ‘check’.

On the negative side• There has to be a number of ‘adult questions’

on each paper and the contexts in which these are set may not be familiar to many students,particularly those taking the exam at Key Stages 3 and 4. In addition, a number of contextsconsidered to be within the experience of theaverage 14–16 year old, such as the planning of afamily holiday, may not be within the experience ofa significant percentage of the candidature, deafand hearing alike. The awarding bodies argue that

because the scene is set at the beginning of eachsection and the questions are framed in plainEnglish, even those students to whom the contextis unfamiliar should still grasp what is required ofthem. Many deaf learners who find difficulty inmaking sense of the context might not be able tounderstand the questions or demands and thereforewill not be able to give a satisfactory response.

• Very few centres offer FS Maths as a stand-alonecourse. Most students are expected to acquire the skills needed to approach an FS Maths examfrom their experience of functionality within othersubjects, such as GCSE maths. This must hugelydisadvantage deaf candidates and others whorequire direct teaching in order for learning to takeplace. This issue alone may outweigh any of thepositives that FS Maths can offer.

There is also an online examavailable that is significantlydifferent from the written one

The observations made here only apply to writtenFS Maths exams. There is also an online examavailable that is significantly different from thewritten one. Candidates answer questions on 12 screens, there are no themed sections, andcandidates are required to respond to stand-alonequestions.

I would be interested to read of colleagues’experiences of FS Maths whichever awarding bodysets the papers, so that I can represent their viewsto the examiners with whom I work: • Does the subject help to launch deaf students

onto a pathway into the world of work? • Does it enable them to operate confidently,

effectively and independently in various spheres of their lives?

• Does it undermine any confidence they havepreviously developed in maths?

• Does it represent yet another insurmountablechallenge set for them?

I conclude with something totally irrelevant to thethrust of this article. In a recent meeting at EdexcelI learnt that a member of the staff had been giventhe task of trawling through past maths papers forsome purpose or other. In the performing of thistask he noticed that the first time a maths examacknowledged the existence of females was in1982. Prior to that date, all levels of maths examsonly contained reference to male figures: apostman, a male doctor, a man at work and so on.Could anyone suggest why this change came aboutin 1982?

Jenny Baxter is a Teacher of the Deaf and anexperienced BATOD modifier.


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FEAPDA CONGRESS IN THE NETHERLANDS!

FEAPDA CONGRESS IN THE NETHERLANDS!

The 22nd international congress of FEAPDA will take place in the Netherlands thisautumn in close co-operation with Siméa. The congresses of FEAPDA are small scale (maximum 150 participants) and intended for professionals in the field of deafeducation. The working language of the congress is English.

The congress will take place on FFrriiddaayy 2211 aanndd SSaattuurrddaayy 2222 OOccttoobbeerr at Kentalis in Sint-Michielsgestel. The theme of the congress will be:

Literacy in deaf children

There will be a number of country presentations, as well as contributions from thefollowing keynote speakers:

Dr Linda Watson (UK)Role of parents in the reading process(Home literacy, language environment and their influence on the reading process)

Dr Ingvild Roald (Norway)Teaching skills of a deaf teacher in reading instruction

Dr Carin Roos (Sweden)Stimulating emergent literacy in young deaf children(Role of spoken and sign language and differences due to hearing status)

Dr Loes Wauters (The Netherlands)Reading strategies and modelling(Best practices: what do we know about what works for hearing and deaf children andhow do we use this knowledge?)

If you require more information please contact: [email protected] take a look at the website: wwww.feapdacongress2011.eu

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The Walter Hines Page Scholarship is a two-weekprogramme organised through the EnglishSpeaking Union and sponsored by the teachers’

union NASUWT. It offers teachers the opportunity to spend two weeks visiting a number of Americanregions and to study a specific aspect of Americaneducation that is relevant to them. As a Teacher ofthe Deaf I was interested in comparing the range ofeducational provision for deaf pupils.

In March 2010, I visited Denver, New York City,Louisville and Cincinnati. The aim of the scholarshipis to promote the exchange of ideas, understandingand knowledge between professionals in the UK andUSA. In two weeks I visited 12 different educationalsettings, including schools for the deaf using abilingual approach, oral schools for the deaf,mainstream schools with resourced provision,inclusive settings and outreach services. Duringthese visits I had the opportunity to observe lessons,speak with pupils and discuss education provisionand support with professionals.

Prior to visiting the USA I had some preconceptionsabout similarities and differences between the twocountries and had formulated a range of questionswhich were to be the basis for discussion with otherprofessionals during my visits.• Is there a range of education provision for deaf

children in the United States?• Is there a wide range of parental choice and are all

communication options available in a local area?• What impact has the policy of inclusion had on the

traditional school for the deaf?• What impact has the recent recession had on the

funding of special education in the United States?

One common theme was the notion that all childrenare individuals with their own preferred method oflearning and despite a hearing loss they should notbe denied the opportunity to reach their full potential.Underpinning this ideal were very strong contrastingfeelings about the best way to achieve success.History has had an important influence on theeducational practice for deaf children in the USA andto examine the present system, it is necessary toacknowledge the historical context in which it is set.

Background to USA legislation and context• 1817 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet adopts French

Sign Language to usein the first school forthe deaf. As a result,the manual code ofAmerican SignLanguage (ASL) isquite different fromBritish Sign Language(BSL) despite bothbeing English-speaking nations.

• 2001 No Child LeftBehind Act – allchildren have a fair and equal access to a highquality education. This is underpinned by a state-wide accountability system which monitors the progress of schools through annual testing ofpupils.

• 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Act – all localeducation agencies must provide free appropriatepublic education in the least restrictive environment.There is a requirement for a full array of servicesand a continuum of placements for deaf pupils.

• 2005 Gallaudet Research – 64% of deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils are educated in regularmainstream classes.

• Approximately 50% of deaf or hard-of-hearing pupilsuse sign language as their primary means of communication. This is a significantly higherproportion than the population in the UK.

Denver, Colorado – a continuum of provisionWithin the metropolitan area of Denver, (population:three million) there is a good choice of educationsettings for parents of deaf children. At the age ofthree, children and their families attend a screeningassessment at a resourced school where a fullaudiology clinic is on site. A hearing test andlanguage assessment are completed and adiscussion of education placement is held with the family. Most deaf pupils are attending their local elementary school. They receive support froman itinerant (peripatetic) Teacher of the Deaf andsome may also be supported by an interpreter inschool. Within Denver there is a large resourcedprovision for 50 pupils using an auditory/oralapproach, where pupils are usually taught in smallclasses by a Teacher of the Deaf. Comprehensiveaudiological support and speech therapy areavailable on site.


F e a t u r e

Lessons from AmericaSimon Ward enjoyed the unique opportunity to visit educational establishments

for deaf pupils in the USA. He reports on his experiences

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Signed provision is available at another resourcedelementary school where 20 pupils accessmainstream lessons with the help of interpretersand are withdrawn for English lessons with aTeacher of the Deaf. As children progress throughschool, the demand for resourced provisiondeclines as auditory/oral pupils are able to accessmainstream lessons more effectively. However,there continues to be a resourced high school foraround 20 pupils who are using ASL to access theschool curriculum.

Rocky Mountain Deaf School (RMDS), Denver

RMDS is an independent public school, fundeddirectly by federal government. The school has 62pupils from a wide geographical area in Denver,with some pupils travelling for up to 90 minutes toattend each day. The school serves a particularcommunity, with deaf children from hearing families,hearing children from deaf families and deafchildren from deaf families. It is located in ashopping precinct. The school rooms are adaptedfrom retail outlets and there is no school playing area.All instruction is through ASL, and English is usedas the medium for reading and writing. Academicachievement and individual identity are central tothe philosophy of the school. The school is followingthe same curriculum as Jefferson County schools inthe area, and the test results show that the schoolis out-performing other local schools. JanetDickinson, the Executive Director of RMDS,attributes the high achievement to the lack ofcommunication barriers, as all adults and childrenare using their first language of ASL to teach andlearn. Additionally, all the children are part of awider Deaf community and have had access togood quality language from an early age.

Money talks! – the role of private sponsorship inpromoting oral educationI visited Kentucky School for the Deaf (1823) andOhio School for the Deaf (1829), both of which arestate funded and provide instruction through ASL.

In contrast I also visited oral provision in the twostates – Heuser Hearing and Language Academy in

Louisville and OhioValley Voices inCincinnati. Both theseschools are non-profitorganisations, heavilyreliant on contributionsand sponsorship fromprivate companies andindividuals.

Ohio Valley Voices wasfounded in 1999 by a group of families with deaf children. It

remains the only programme in the area committed toteaching deaf children to speak and understand whenothers speak to them. The school serves children andtheir families from ages 0–8 and aims to prepare allpupils for their local public schools. The school hadthe feel of an early years centre with active parentclasses and outreach support to babies and theirfamilies. There is a modern audiology clinic on site.The buildings are modern and purpose-built, withsoundproofing and acoustic treatment throughout,which makes for an excellent learning and listeningenvironment. Pupils follow a highly intensive oral

programme withinschool and their parents commit to theprogramme through theattendance of classes.The school has highstaffing ratios and small class sizes and as a result the cost ofeducating each child is£22,000 per year.

Maria Sentelik, the Executive Director of OhioValley Voices, is aware of the difficulties in raisingfinance, especially during a recession period. 40%of the revenue is from private contributions and amajor aim of the school is to raise its profile andattract contributions.

As with the UK, the growing trend towards inclusionin the USA is affecting the traditional role of theschool for the deaf. Outreach, parental support,training, assessment panels and the increased useof video links for teaching are high priorities forthose schools with a shrinking population.

Further information about the Walter Hines PageScholarship is available through the EnglishSpeaking Union, Dartmouth House, 37 CharlesStreet, London W1J 5ED or from www.esu.org.uk/

Simon Ward is a Teacher of the Deaf with LiverpoolSensory Service.

F e a t u r e

Ohio School for the Deaf – a state school for deaf pupils with an outreach service

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We do not know enough about deaf children’smental health difficulties. For example, if adeaf child has mental health difficulties in

childhood, does that mean that he or she will havedifficulties as an adult? What influences mental well-being as deaf children grow up? How do deaf people’s views of their own life events andexperiences influence their understanding of well-being? A new research study has set out to answerthose questions. It will follow up a group of deafpeople who were originally studied as children in1988 and ask them to take part in this new researchto find out what happened next to them.

Original studyIn the original 1988 study, Peter Hindley and hisfellow researchers attempted to find out theprevalence rate of the likelihood of psychiatricdisorder in deaf young people. Hindley used theterm psychiatric disorder as meaning disturbed insocial interaction, with emotional and/or behaviouralproblems. At the time of the study, the exactprevalence of mental health difficulties in deafchildren was not known because previous studieswere neither reliable nor valid enough. Those deafyoung people who took part in Hindley’s originalstudy were aged between 11 and 16 years old at thetime. They were recruited from four different schoolsin boroughs of London: one school for the deaf andthree partially hearing units. Hindley collected thedata from teachers, parents of deaf young peopleand deaf young people themselves. Teachers and parents were asked to provide data aboutbehavioural difficulties of the child and complete achecklist to get the information about the deaf youngperson’s communication mode, conduct problems,emotional problems and social interaction (aquestion about the communication ability of the deaf child was added to the teacher checklist).

Hindley’s research showed that a higher proportion ofyoung deaf people were experiencing mental healthdifficulties in comparison to hearing young people. Hefound that for all deaf young people in the study, theprevalence rate was between 43% and 50.3%, whichwas one-and-a-half times higher than for hearingyoung people. However, when looking at the types of school they attended, the prevalence in pupilsattending schools for the deaf was between 33%

and 42%, and between 57% and 61% for pupilsattending mainstream schools. For mainstreamschools, the prevalence rate was over twice that of the hearing population. Other factors examinedincluded gender and age. In relation to genderdifficulties, teachers reported more difficulties in boysthan girls, and for the factor of age, it was found thatdeaf young people who were aged 13 or underscored significantly higher mental health difficultiesthan those who were aged 14–16 years old.

Current studyThis new study will try to trace the participants of the original study with a view to finding out whethermental health difficulties in childhood influence well-being outcomes in adulthood, and if so, whatthe factors are which influence those outcomes. Thisstudy also will explore how deaf people consider thekey events in their lives that might have influencedtheir well-being. The personal details of thesechildren/young people who took part are confidentialand not accessible to me. I am therefore seekingassistance to find these participants in order toinform them about my follow-up work and toascertain if they wish to take part in this study.

As a Teacher of the Deaf, you may recall the originalstudy and you may have even taken part in it. Thedeaf people I am looking for would now be agedbetween 33 and 40 years old. The schools that tookpart in the original study were all based in theLondon area: • Haverstock School• Sedgehill School• St Paul’s School• Oak Lodge School.

The potential participants from the cohort of deafyoung people in Hindley’s 1988 study will be askedto complete the well-being assessment and aquestionnaire on life course and life events. Thepurpose of this questionnaire is to capture the keyinformation linked to, for example, education,employment, family life and social life. Some of themwill be invited to be interviewed to find out, from theirown perspective, about key events in their lives, andtheir perspectives on their own mental well-beingover the past 22 years as well as what mental well-being actually means to them. They will have the


F e a t u r e

Mental healthoutcomesTwenty-two years after a study of the mental health of a group of young deaf

people, Katherine Rogers is seeking to reassess the participants and provide

valuable data for today’s professionals

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F e a t u r e

opportunity to reflect on transition from school daysto adult life, as well as the key turning points forthem in the courses of their lives, and their keystresses/pressures and successes.

Tracing the cohort of deaf young people inHindley’s 1988 studyIf you know anyone who may have been aparticipant in the Hindley’s study of 1988 I would begrateful if you could pass on my details so they canrequest more information about my research.

Details about my follow-up study can be found atwww.manchester.ac.uk/deafwellbeing/ Information is

available in British Sign Language and in writtenEnglish. I can be contacted at Social Research with Deaf People, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Manchester,University Place, Oxford Road, Manchester M139PL. Tel: 07856 696533 or 0161 306 0260 (minicom),email [email protected].

Possible implications of this studyThe results from this study will provide information tothose professionals, including Teachers of the Deaf,working with deaf children and their families to helptarget routine mental health support in childhood. It will allow exploration of the pathways betweenchildhood and adulthood that might influence thewell-being of the deaf population and might identifythe risk and protective factors for the mental well-being outcomes of deaf children. Understandingthose factors will be valuable to parents of deafchildren as well as to professionals, includingTeachers of the Deaf, working with deaf children and young people.

This project is funded by the National Institute forHealth Research and is part of my doctoral researchfellowship, which is being supervised by ProfessorAlys Young and Professor Karina Lovell. The studyhas received full ethical approval from the School ofNursing, Midwifery and Social Work Research EthicsCommittee at the University of Manchester.

Katherine Rogers is a National Institute for HealthResearch Doctoral Research Fellow, SocialResearch with Deaf People (SORD) group, Schoolof Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University ofManchester.

Pilot studyAs part of my research, a well-being assessmenthas been translated into British Sign Language(BSL) so that it can be accessible for those whosepreferred language is BSL. I am seeking deafvolunteers to take part in the pilot study for theBSL version and English version of the well-beingassessment. To participate in this pilot study thedeaf person must be 18 years or older and havenot taken part in the Hindley’s study in 1988.Participants in the pilot study will be asked tocomplete an online assessment, either in BSL orEnglish. This should take approximately 10–15minutes.

Volunteers for pilot studyIf someone you know may be interested in takingpart in the pilot study, further information can befound at www.manchester.ac.uk/deafwellbeing orfrom [email protected].

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The terms FM and personal FM system are usedthroughout this article and are intended to includenewer devices which operate using digital

radio transmission technology as an alternative to frequency modulation (FM) radio transmissiontechnology. In educational circles at present, there isno one generally accepted term for personal radiosystems that would encompass either or both of thesetransmission strategies.

The general trend in educational circles over the last20 years or so has been to connect (couple) FM radioreceivers directly into a student’s hearing instrumentusing a direct audio input (DAI) facility. Universal earlevel FM receivers are plugged directly into the audioinput shoe, integrated ear level FM receivers formpart of an audio shoe, and body worn FM receiversare connected by using an audio input shoe anddirect input lead. However, I am aware of an increasein FM receivers being coupled to students’ hearinginstruments by inductive methods (particularly withcochlear implant processors) and I would highlightpoints that should be considered if contemplating thistype of coupling.

In my opinion there are two probable reasons for the resurgence in the use of inductive coupling withFM receivers: first, depending on the choice of FMreceiver and accessories, the costs of deliveringinductively coupled FM bilaterally to a child can beless than that of providing two ear level receivers andaccessories using DAI; second, there is a generalweariness of supervisors and users towards the lackof efficacy and robustness of some DAI shoes and themanagement costs that this generates.

By inductively coupled FM receivers I mean those thatare configured to transfer audio signals from the radioreceiver to hearing instrument(s) using an inductiveneckloop or inductive silhouette earhook(s) while that hearing instrument is switched to the telecoil (T)program or the microphone plus telecoil (MT) program.I do not include digital/pulse coded neckloop systemssuch as Connevans WDI and Phonic Ear TMX.

The points to consider fall into two categories:technical and general management. None of theseshould/would exclude FM from being inductivelycoupled, but it is important to be aware of the issuesand effects so that they can be controlled andmanaged.

Technical considerationsThe technical considerations when using the telecoil

for FM have been widely discussed over a numberof years and include:• A strong likelihood that there will be difference

in the frequency response of sounds that arereceived via the telecoil from those that arereceived via the hearing instrument microphone.This may result in the user perceiving differenttonal qualities.

• Orientation of the hearing instruments in relation to the position of the neckloop: the changes in orientation of the hearing instrument telecoil in relation to the neckloop that occur during head movement cause a fluctuation of theelectromagnetic (EM) field strength received by thetelecoil, and for the user this may result in variationof perceived loudness of the sounds from thetransmitter.

• Arguably most importantly, the susceptibility of ahearing instrument switched to a telecoil programto pick up interference from a variety of sources.Switching a hearing instrument to a telecoilprogram (regardless as to whether or not there isany FM connected or neckloop being worn) makesthat instrument sensitive to EM fields (that is howtelecoil input functions). As a consequence theinstrument becomes sensitive to both wanted andunwanted EM fields. We are all surrounded by EMfields of differing types and strengths and many of these will not produce noticeable interference in the hearing instrument, but some electricalequipment, including fluorescent lighting, electricmotors, power supplies, interactive whiteboardsand computers, generate EM fields that may wellbe of an intensity and nature to interferesignificantly with normal listening.

ManagementOverall management of the FM system as a stand-alone item is the same for an FM system connectedby other methods and will not be discussed here.

When students use inductively coupled FM, thecomplexity of management for the supervisordepends very much on the students’ perception ofwhat they hear their maturity and ability to report on what they hear, and their ability and dexterity to understand and control the programs that are enabled on their hearing instrument.

In the absence of reliable feedback from the child,management of the above mentioned EM interferenceissues is probably best addressed by the supervisormaking very regular listening checks via the student’shearing instruments throughout the school


F e a t u r e

Transmission strategiesKen Higgins and Paul Harris consider the issues around inductively coupled personal FM systems

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environments in which the student works, payingparticular attention to areas with an abundance ofelectric/electronic equipment and/or fluorescentlighting. If the student is fitted with conventionalacoustic hearing aids, then listening in should be straightforward to carry out using a stetoclip.However, with some cochlear implants and otherhearing instruments it might not be possible to listenin, and in these instances the use of a purpose-builtloop listener or a spare hearing aid with a T programcould be utilised. I would expect that on carrying outthese checks it will be found that in any given room,the amount of interference heard will depend on the location of the hearing instrument/loop listenerwithin that room. It is possible that a room will exhibitunacceptable levels of interference in some areas butnot others, and this could indicate where the studentshould sit for optimum interference-free listening.

How the hearing instrument is programmed plays an important part in management. Most hearinginstruments these days have the capability to give theuser a number of programs to suit different listeningsituations (T and M + T being two of these), but in thecase of young or less able children who are unable toreport reliably or manage their own programs, mosthospitals will choose to enable only one program, and in so doing ensure that the user is always on theappropriate program. If the child is in education thenthis single chosen program is likely to be FM plusmicrophone (FM + M) in the anticipation that the childwill be using an FM system at the time of a hearinginstrument fitting or in the future. When this program isadopted, if an FM system is connected via audio input,then the students hear sounds from the transmitter,and their own voice, plus those of their neighbours,and environmental sounds via the instrument’smicrophone, and this is the generally accepted andpreferred arrangement. When the FM system isswitched off or disconnected, they hear their ownvoice, environmental sounds and their neighbours’voices via the hearing instrument microphone.However, there are differences if the FM system isinductively coupled. The hearing instrument will needto be programmed to have T + M if they are to hearboth the FM transmitter via the telecoil and their ownvoice via the environmental microphone. If this secondscenario of a single M + T program is adopted, andthe FM receiver or transmitter is switched off ordisconnected, they will obviously cease to hear theFM sounds, but the hearing instrument will continue tobe sensitive to EM fields that are in their environment,and the students may become aware of thesepresented to them as noise. As a consequence the students will be susceptible to interference for the whole of the time that they wear their hearinginstrument. A way to minimise this would be for thehearing instrument to have an accessible additionalprogram that is microphone only (no T) for use when

FM is not required. If the students do have thisadditional program, then unless they are supervisedintensively, they need to be proficient in identifyingwhich program is appropriate and have the ability and dexterity to carry out the switching operation.

In conclusionInductive coupling of FM receivers is one possibleoption as an alternative to utilising the audio inputfacility of the hearing instrument.

Inductive coupling of FM receivers is not a quick andeasy ‘hang it around their neck and leave’ option.Setting and monitoring the FM output level as we dowhen coupling via direct audio input is still relevant.

If there is only a single MT program in the hearinginstrument then the user will be prone to interferencenot only when using FM, but the whole of the timewhen using the aid. Having a second ‘microphoneonly’ program can help to minimise this.

The implications of having more than one user-accessible program in the hearing instrument needcareful consideration. For able users who can manageand operate their hearing system proficiently, a thirdprogram, T only, might be considered.

If using inductively coupled FM with students whocannot reliably report on what they are hearing, it isnecessary to monitor the school environment to checklevels of EM interference, particularly around computers,IT equipment, florescent lights and electric motors.

Ken Higgins is the Ewing Foundation Technicianbased in the Midlands. He can be contacted regardingthis article at [email protected] or on07866 920401. Paul Harris is the Ewing FoundationTechnician in the South West. He can be contacted [email protected] or on 07786 135606.

F e a t u r e

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On 15 October 2010, 48 teenagers with a hearingloss gathered at Cambridge ProfessionalDevelopment Centre for the first Moving On

Conference. Some were dropped off by slightly anxiousparents, others were in groups accompanied by theirToD or CSW. Hormonal individuals eyed each other withdistrust in the foyer as they queued to receive theirgoody bag, quiz and programme. Five hours later theywere agreeing to add each other on Facebook andskipping off towards the weekend, brimming withinformation, confidence and freebies.

Cambridgeshire has recently developed a Hearing-Impaired Teenagers Transition Group (HIT), consistingof representatives from audiology clinics, the EmmelineCentre for Hearing Implants, the National DeafChildren’s Society (NDCS), Connexions, furthereducation colleges, peripatetic ToDs and youth groups.This multi-agency group aims to ensure that thetransition for deaf children from all paediatric to adultservices is as seamless as possible.

HIT organised the day, which was sponsored by twocochlear implant (CI) companies and attended by 38professionals from 22 different organisations. Theseincluded NDCS, Connevans, CI and hearing aidcompanies, services for deaf advocacy, specialistmental health workers, representatives from high streetbanks and further education colleges. Teenagers aged14–19 with hearing aids, bone-anchored hearing aids,cochlear implants and no amplification were invited from Cambridgeshire and, in the case of CI and bone-anchored hearing aid users linked to the EmmelineCentre, further afield across the east of England.

The aims of the day were for the young people to meetnew peers; to gain confidence in understanding theirhearing loss and equipment; to look at the choicesavailable to them for future career paths; to gainawareness about accessing a variety of supportagencies for their future social, emotional and economicwell-being and finally to have an opportunity tocomment on their future needs.

Two such information days had been organisedpreviously by HIT but were poorly attended and thisthird attempt drew on the problems thrown up before:the venue being too closely linked to school, the daytaking place on a Saturday when teenagers wouldrather be anywhere else but discussing their futureneeds with service providers, and advertising notreaching enough of the intended cohort. This time anadult venue was chosen, the day was a school day andeveryone was invited by individual letter. Letters went

out to ToDs and headteachers detailing the SMARTtargets that the day would address. These includedaspects of Every Child Matters, Aiming High forDisabled Children and The Children’s Plan. Letters were followed up by phone calls closer to the event.

A particular feature of the day was the conferenceformat, which was obviously new to the attendees butwhich played a part in helping them to feel enabled andrespected. The day began in the main conference room,where the hearing aid manufacturers and cochlearimplant companies also had their information stands.There were also three ‘break-out’ rooms entitledIndependent Living, Choices: Education & Employmentand Financial Support. Here the teenagers wereencouraged to visit every stand by way of a quiz towhich every organisation had contributed questions.Good quality prizes were donated by sponsors for thequiz winners. The day ended with feedback in smallgroups. Lunch was provided and snacks and drinkswere freely available throughout the day.

The feedback from the teenagers and the adults whoattended was overwhelmingly positive. The teens all rated meeting other deaf teenagers as their topenjoyable activity; however, every other aspect of theday also scored 70% or above. The organisationswithout a specific deaf focus (for example the highstreet banks) also commented on how useful it hadbeen for their staff to meet young deaf people, both in terms of discussing the young people’s needs and of improving their own general deaf awareness. Allorganisations said they would like to participate in anyfuture similar events.

Feedback from the teenagers, which will be addressedif another day is planned, included wanting informationabout driving and the driving test, more deaf mentors tobe available, a video-diary camera to be available forthem to record their impressions of the day and a timeslot to be arranged for parents to look at the information(parents were encouraged to leave their offspring for theday to foster independence).

The organisers themselves were extremely pleased thattheir hard work had translated into a useful and, it ishoped, memorable day for the young people involved.Further days can build on the outcomes of this firstsuccessful venture now that the groundwork with bothservice providers and schools has been firmly laid.

Jill Bradley is a ToD working as a paediatricrehabilitationist at the Emmeline Centre for HearingImplants in Cambridge.


F e a t u r e

A HIT dayJill Bradley highlights the success of the Moving On Conference for teenagers in Cambridgeshire

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For almost 30 years, Roots and Shoots has beenworking with young Londoners with specialeducational needs. For many of the young men

and women who find their way to this Lambetheducation and environmental charity, it is simply thefirst good thing that has ever happened to them.

Roots and Shoots’ full-time 40-week foundationlearning programme in vocational development is freeto young people from all London boroughs, who alsoreceive free travel while they study. It attracts studentsaged 16–25 years old with a statement of specialeducational need; all applicants must be Entry Level to Level 1.

Courses are City & Guild accredited, with theopportunity to gain horticulture or retail qualificationsor a National Arts Award. Students gain employabilityand personal development skills, alongside sessionsin maths, English and ICT, and move on to furthereducation and training or into employment. Last year,75% completed the course and have started in furthereducation or a job.

Older students naturally become mentors for theyounger ones and this helps to add to the friendly andsupportive environment that is good for everyone. Thediversity of students makes it exceptional, and thisyear’s group has come from a number of specialistsecondary schools and colleges, mainstream schoolsand advisory referral agencies. The young peopleflourish at Roots and Shoots, finding friendship as wellas the skills and self-confidence to make their way inthe world. After moving on, many return time andagain over the years.

Classes are held in the ‘green’ Learning Centre,opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2004, in the plant nursery and acclaimed wildlife garden on the Walnut Tree Walk site. Grow, Cook and Eat, agardening project for 14–16 year olds, takes place atthe nearby allotment. The beauty of the surroundingscontributes to a general sense of well-being, fromwhich students, staff and the many visitors (who usethe hall and other meeting facilities) all benefit.

Work experience is an important part of the Roots andShoots curriculum, and students build up practicalskills in developing public spaces as well as theoretichorticultural knowledge. Placements include working inlocal parks, large estates and even the gardens of

Buckingham Palaceitself and for somestudents theseplacements can lead to permanent jobopportunities later on.

In 2009 Roots andShoots had interactivewhiteboards installed tohelp develop a broaderrange of teachingsessions. This wascombined with aninduction loop system

to help students with hearing difficulties. Small classsizes of between four and seven students ensure that everyone, whatever their background, academic ability or personality, is able to make an importantcontribution to sessions and general life at the centre.

One student in particular hasworked extremely well since hisarrival, setting the pace withdynamic enthusiasm and anatural focus towards gainingskills and qualifications. AlfieGent, 17 (left), who is deaf in oneear, came to Roots and Shootsfrom The Haberdashers’ Aske’sCollege in New Cross. He speaks

openly about his deafness and is determined to buildhis communication skills. Alfie is outgoing, playsfootball for a local team and is keen to develop hispractical skills; he is gaining his work experience withLambeth Parks team.

Roots and Shoots is also well known for itsenvironmental work and in 2010 was a winner of oneof the prestigious City of London Sustainable CityAwards.

Referrals are welcome and for more information or to arrange to visit Roots and Shoots contact theEmployment Officer Matt Brownlee on 020 7587 1131or go to www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/

Lindsay Swan is an editor and PR consultant with aparticular interest in the environment. She also writesfor various newspapers and magazines and has beena volunteer at Roots and Shoots since 2004.

Roots and Shoots Lindsay Swan reports on the charity that trains young people with special needs

to fulfil their potential

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The International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University of Central Lancashire has been awarded a

prestigious £1.16 million research grant by theEuropean Research Council. The grant will fund afive-year project on multilingual behaviours in signlanguage users.

The new area of research emerging from this project –sign multilingualism studies – is virtually non-existentat present and this is the first time researchers haveever investigated a complex range of multilingualbehaviours in sign language users. We will look atsituations such as bilingual signers from the UK andIndia using both Indian Sign Language and BritishSign Language in their communication, or signersfrom different countries without a shared languagedeveloping ad-hoc signed communication.

Although work at iSLanDS is primarily concerned withlinguistics, it is fair to ask whether our research mayhave any implications for the area of deaf education. I would argue that this link lies in the importance ofmeta-linguistic skills.

Meta-linguistic skills are based on the conscious,explicit awareness of the structures and workings of language and communication. For instance, twosigners from different countries who meet for the firsttime and try to communicate in an ad-hoc way need touse a very fast and complex way of online monitoringof communication: what signs and structures is theother person most likely to understand? Which signalstell me whether the other person has understood me ornot? When and how should I interrupt the other personfor clarification? The ‘success’ of communication insuch first-time contact situations varies widely, and thelevel of meta-linguistic skill is one of the importantfactors.

All studies in our new project have in common ashared interest in meta-linguistic skills. Rather thanbeing concerned with communication challenges andproblems, this project showcases people’s high levellinguistic abilities. Generic meta-linguistic skills canserve to overcome problems with literacy, particularlywhere systems of literacy support are already in place.Deaf signers can very well undertake even PhD-levelstudies with limited English literacy, for instance if theyare from other countries where there is no way forthem to learn English. However, in order to succeedthey need a large range of other linguistic skills: toself-assess which areas of English they have mostproblems with, maybe because those are most

different from their primary written or signed language;to make informed choices about whether they need a language support tutor, a qualified interpreter or a communication assistant for the task at hand; to realise what kinds of writing need what level of formality; to recognise when they have gained‘enough’ from a text they are reading or skimmingthrough with the help of language support. All theseare, of course, meta-linguistic skills.

This example demonstrates, somewhat surprisingly,that the key to succeeding with a high-end academictask such a PhD thesis need not be English literacy as such, but rather the totality of linguistic and meta-linguistic skills, which at our Institute often correlatewith the use of more than one sign language. Indeed,there is a common basis underlying the skills neededfor literacy and the skills needed for the kinds ofsituations we will be investigating in our new project.

The project on multilingual behaviours in signlanguage users aims at contributing to a betterunderstanding and appreciation of meta-linguistic andmultilingual skills. If this appreciation can carry overinto deaf education in the UK and elsewhere, it wouldadd a worthwhile angle to our project outcomes.

Ulrike Zeshan is the Director of the InternationalInstitute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies at the University of Central Lancashire(www.uclan.ac.uk/islands).

Exploring sign multilingualism Ulrike Zeshan describes a new project studying sign multilingualism and meta-linguistic skills in sign

language users and teaching

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Neuroscientists are increasingly acknowledging theimportance of the first few months of life for thedevelopment of the pathways in the brain that

support normal spoken language development. Thelanguage input that an infant receives during this timeshapes the development of these neural pathways.Even though babies are not producing language thisearly on, the language that they hear from others will be laying the foundations in the brain for their ownproduction of language at a later stage. As we know,this is the case in infants born with a hearingimpairment for whom significantly degraded languageinput in the critical first few months of life impactsseverely on their spoken language development. Earlyidentification of hearing loss and early intervention canmitigate these effects.

Late identification has been a barrier to earlyintervention in the past, but the development of tests that can screen newborn infants for hearingimpairment has meant that more children have beenidentified early enough for them to receive interventionin that critical first year of life. A programme ofresearch implemented by Professor Colin Kennedyand colleagues in collaboration with four hospitals in the Wessex area (Princess Anne Hospital,Southampton; St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth;Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon; Royal UnitedHospital, Bath) between 1993 and 1996 demonstratedthat using a two-stage screening process (evokedotoacoustic emissions – EOAE – and the auditorybrainstem response – ABR – test) in the first few daysof life was an effective way of identifying infants withhearing impairment at a much earlier age than waspossible with the distraction test. Results from theWessex study showed that in periods when the two-stage newborn screen was available, 74% of allchildren who had permanent hearing problems wereidentified before they were six months old. This wasmore than double the percentage of children whosehearing impairment was diagnosed by six months inperiods when the two-stage newborn screen was notavailable, suggesting that newborn screening is aneffective way of making a diagnosis of deafness in the critical first few months of life.

The next step in the research was to confirm that thisearly identification resulted in improved language in later life, as would be predicted if very early languageexperience is vitally important for the developinglanguage pathways in the brain. Following on from thefindings of the Wessex study described above, the

Hearing Outcomes Project (which took place between2002 and 2004 in areas across Wessex and GreaterLondon) aimed to determine whether being exposed toa newborn screening programme and having earlyconfirmation of hearing impairment were associatedwith improved speech and language outcomes inmiddle childhood. Thanks to the collaboration ofaudiologists and Teachers of the Deaf in the Hillingdon,Brent and Harrow, Waltham Forest and Redbridgeareas of London, it was possible to include bothscreened and non-screened deaf children from theseareas in the project in addition to the children previouslyidentified as part of the Wessex study, meaning that 120 children and their families were involved with theresearch. The Hearing Outcomes Project team foundthat six- to ten-year-old-deaf children who had had theirhearing impairment confirmed before nine months ofage had better language, literacy and communicationskills than a comparison group who had had theirhearing impairment confirmed after nine months.

The early confirmed group showed much betterperformance on both the receptive (the British PictureVocabulary Scale, the Test for Reception of Grammar)and expressive (the Renfrew Bus Story) languagemeasures that were administered during the study than the late confirmed group. Both the groups of deafchildren showed verbal ability that was much lower thanwould be predicted by their non-verbal ability, as would


F e a t u r e

The HOT ProjectHannah Pimperton has news of a fascinating investigation into the effects of

early detection of deafness on language and literacy skills in deaf teenagers

Professor Colin Kennedy carries out a newbornhearing screening

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be expected. However, the early confirmed group had asmaller gap between their verbal and non-verbal abilitythan the late confirmed group. In terms of their literacydevelopment, early confirmation of hearing impairmentwas again associated with superior performance, thistime on word reading and reading comprehensiontasks. The researchers controlled statistically for otherimportant factors that could have caused the groupdifferences, such as the child’s non-verbal IQ and levelof hearing loss, and the mother’s education level. Thissuggests that it was the difference between the groupsin terms of the age at which their deafness wasconfirmed that was leading to the differences in theirlanguage and literacy outcomes, and supports the idea that early language experience is vital for thedevelopment of the language pathways in the brain.

The findings from the Hearing Outcomes Projectconcerning the benefits of newborn screening and the associated early confirmation of deafness not only validated the introduction of universal newbornscreening (UNS) across the UK, but were also a keydriving force behind changes to federal health policy in the USA. The United States Preventive ServicesTaskforce had previously not recommended theintroduction of UNS for hearing impairment in the USA,citing insufficient evidence in support of its benefits.However, following the dissemination of the HearingOutcomes Project results, it updated its policy torecommend that UNS be introduced across the USA.

Six years on, the children who took part in the HearingOutcomes Project are now teenagers, coping with awhole new set of experiences and challenges. Thecurrent phase of the research, the HOT (HearingOutcomes in Teenagers) Project, began in June 2010,and aims to go back to follow up these young peopleand assess their outcomes in a variety of differentdomains. We will be able to assess reading, languageand communication skills once more, and determinewhether the benefits to these skills that were associatedwith early confirmation at primary school continue intothe secondary school years. This will be the first everinvestigation into the effects of early versus latedetection of deafness on language and literacy skills in deaf teenagers.

We will also be able to explore links betweenperformance at primary and secondary school anddiscover which factors are associated with those youngpeople who manage to ‘catch up’ with their normallyhearing peers, as compared with those who continue tostruggle with their language and literacy. Finally, we willassess a series of additional outcomes this time roundthat were not assessed previously. These outcomes areones selected to be particularly relevant to the familiesinvolved, and to the teenagers themselves, and includesocial development, quality of life, and educational oremployment outcomes.

One of the biggest challenges of the HOT Project willbe to track down those young people who took part inthe project when they were children, so that we cangive them the opportunity to be involved this time roundtoo. It is important that we involve as many of theseteenagers as possible to ensure that the results that wefind are an accurate reflection of reality. We are lookingfor teenagers who were born between 1993 and 1996in any of these hospitals: Princess Anne Hospital,Southampton; St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth; PrincessMargaret Hospital, Swindon; Royal United Hospital,Bath, or alternatively between 1992 and 1997 in any ofthese areas of London: Waltham Forest; Hillingdon;Brent and Harrow; Redbridge. All those who take partwill receive gift vouchers to spend at top high streetshops as a thank you for their time and effort.

As with the previous phase of this research, the supportand input of Teachers of the Deaf will be an invaluablepart of the HOT Project, particularly with respect totracking down potential study participants. To help outwith the search for our teenage participants, to readmore about the progress of the project or to offer anyadvice or support, please visit the HOT Project website:www.hotproject.org.uk/

Dr Hannah Pimperton is a senior research fellow inthe Division of Clinical Neurosciences at the Universityof Southampton.

F e a t u r e

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Teachers of the Deaf and other professionalsworking with deaf children and their families need to be aware of the significant advances in

the research and identification of genes and geneticmutations connected with hearing loss. Theintroduction of the Newborn Hearing ScreeningProgramme means that parents of newborn babies arefinding out very quickly, usually within the first fewweeks of life, if there is a possible hearing loss. Furthertests may confirm this and parents may then be offeredgenetic counselling and testing to try and identify thecause of loss. In addition, media awareness may raisequestions for parents of deaf babies and children andconsequently they may decide to seek help andguidance about genetic testing from ToDs.

Research backgroundThe significant advances in genetic research over the last ten years have raised awareness of variousdisabilities and dysfunctions that may coexist withdeafness. It has been suggested that sometimesdeafness can so dominate the attention of practitionersthat they may overlook other disabilities that mayaccompany it.

ToDs work closely with deaf children and their familiesand have the opportunity to make ongoing observationsof children and therefore they need to be alert to thepossibility that deafness may not be the only issue.

It has been estimated that one in three deaf schoolchildren has an educationally or physically disablingcondition. The failure to identify these additionaldisabilities and the possibility of a deteriorating hearingloss can result in misguided educational planning and audiological management. In addition, withoutdiagnosis there will be no opportunity to managepotentially serious health conditions that may even be life threatening.

The genetic research department at GallaudetUniversity has produced a list of around 400 types of hereditary deafness, although very little is knownabout many of the genes that cause this. If a hearingloss is genetic it means that it is carried down througha family and this is why recording family history isimportant, but even if there is no family history ofdeafness, it does not mean that it is not genetic.

Syndromic and non-syndromic hearing lossThere are two main forms of genetic deafness:syndromic, in which there can be other medicalproblems in addition to the hearing loss, or

non-syndromic, where the only obvious medicalproblem may be hearing loss.

Syndromic hearing lossRecent advances in genetic research have focusedattention on syndromes and at least 60 have beenidentified that include deafness and other severedysfunctions. Some of these conditions are wellknown and others have only recently been identified.However, some of these conditions may not alwaysbe evident at birth or early childhood and may notmanifest themselves until late childhood or even into adulthood. Additional disabilities connected tosyndromic deafness may affect different parts of the body, such as the eyes in Usher syndrome, thekidneys in Alport syndrome and the heart in Jervelland Lange-Nielsen syndrome.

Non-syndromic hearing lossUntil 12 years ago very little was known about genesconnected with non-syndromic hearing loss. Researchhad been focusing on the function of Connexins thatare found in membranes in the body, including thecochlea. Connexins are transmembrane proteins thatform channels allowing the transport of ions or smallmolecules between cells.

In 1997, researchers in Leeds and London made an important breakthrough in the identification ofConnexin 26 (CX26), a gene mutation that was foundto be one cause of non-syndromic hearing loss. Sincethen other mutations have been identified and it isnow believed that non-syndromic hereditary deafnessis mainly (80%) due to recessive genes or mutations.Furthermore there may be more than one mutationinvolved in a particular Connexin, for example, inConnexin 26, 111 mutations have been recorded.

Example of how Connexin 26 is expressed in thecochlea


F e a t u r e

Getting to grips with geneticsLesley Yalcin stresses the importance of raising awareness about the advances in genetic research

as part of continuing professional development for Teachers of the Deaf

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3 Interdental cells 8 Hensen cells4 Inner sulcus cells 9 Claudius cells5 Inner pillar cells 10 Spiral ligament6 Outer pillar cells 11 Spiral limbus7 Deiters cells 18 External sulcus cells

Inheriting Connexin 26In these examples the inheritance of the faultyConnexin 26 gene is represented by ‘r’ with theworking copy by ‘R’.

1 Both parents are carriers

2 Only the mother is the carrier

Attitudes towards genetic researchOn the whole, mainstream society views theadvantages of genetic science positively if this canresult in treatments or cures for serious medicalconditions. Genetic testing for hereditary deafness is a relatively new concept and although research is limited, evidence suggests that there may beconflicting views about genetic testing betweenhearing and deaf parents of deaf children. It isimportant that ToDs consider the parents’ attitudestowards genetic research, testing and counselling.

Attitudes of hearing parents with deaf childrenA survey was conducted in 2000 called ‘ParentalAttitude toward Testing for Paediatric Deafness’ and96% of respondents demonstrated a positive attitudetowards testing, including prenatal testing. Furthermore,those surveyed said that they would not use theinformation to terminate an affected pregnancy.

Attitudes of deaf parents with deaf childrenThere is some evidence to suggest that the Deaf

community may have a very different attitude togenetic testing. The organisers of the Deaf Nationconference held at the University of Central Lancashirein 1997 issued questionnaires to deaf delegates. Theconference was aimed at well-educated people, withan emphasis on Deaf culture issues. The resultsprovide evidence of a predominantly negative attitudetoward genetics and its impact on deaf people. Thequestionnaire asked ‘Based on what you know, do youthink genetic testing will do more harm than good ormore good than harm?’ The responses were recordedas follows: more harm than good (55%); more goodthan harm (13%); not sure (32%).

One important ethical issue that was raised in thesurvey was that members of the Deaf community mayconsider having a prenatal test with termination ofpregnancy for a hearing foetus. This raises importantquestions for the genetic professionals because theymay find themselves in untenable positions if theysubscribe to the model of non-directive geneticcounselling – ie subscribing to a deaf person’s choice to terminate a pregnancy if the foetus is hearing.

Genetic testing and counselling ToDs may be asked by parents of deaf children aboutthe procedures for genetic testing and although theycannot give expert advice, it is important that they havesome awareness and can offer general informationsuch as can be found online at the RNID and NDCSwebsites.

Tests currently offeredThe main routine genetic test that can be offered tofamilies who want to know the cause of deafness is to test for changes in Connexin 26 and 30, althoughsome clinics may not offer both. Other tests forsyndromes connected to deafness, for examplePendred syndrome, may be available but would onlybe suggested if people showed signs of a particularcondition.

Now and into the futureIn the last ten years there have been importantadvances in the field of genetic research. Thisresearch will increase, as scientists are alreadylooking at stem cell research and genetic engineeringand modification. It is possible that pre-implantationgenetic diagnosis and gene therapy for deafness willalso become available. However, the implications ofthese developments are controversial and raise wideranging questions for debate. Appropriate counsellingcan help parents and carers and deaf adultsunderstand the risks, benefits and limitations ofgenetic testing.

Lesley Yalcin is the Specialist Co-ordinator for Deafand Hearing-Impaired and a Teacher of the Deaf atBlackpool and The Fylde College.

F e a t u r e

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Due to the widespread snow in December the NEC meeting was rescheduled for 29 January in Birmingham. The morning was devoted to

discussion groups, which produced some valuableoutcomes.

The first group to feed back had worked on rewritingthe BATOD policy for TLR and SEN allowances. Thishas been produced in light of the changes which tookplace in September 2010 to amalgamate the previoustwo SEN points into one scale. The new criteria alsoname teachers working in services as being eligible toreceive the SEN allowance, and specify that employersmust ensure that criteria for payments are clearlystated and transparent. The new BATOD documentseeks to clarify the legal requirements for employersand will be helpful for Teachers of the Deaf. A finalparagraph has been included to incorporate Scotlandand Northern Ireland. This will be put on the website inthe members’ area in the near future. It was decided tomake policy review a standing item for Steering Group,to ensure that BATOD members remain aware ofchanges to pay and conditions, safeguarding ofsalaries and other areas of BATOD policy.

The second group focused on the recent Ofstedbriefing paper for inspectors Special educational needsand/or disabilities in mainstream schools. The groupdiscussed what evidence Teachers of the Deaf shouldcollect to show the difference they make to pupilprogress. ToDs need to have high expectations andmake frequent use of Progression Guidance to ensurethat deaf children and young people are makingprogress commensurate with their peers. This requiresteachers to keep concise data relating to ongoingassessment to illustrate the value of support. It isessential that as a profession we are clear about thedifference we make and have evidence to support thisand ensure that results of specialist assessments feedinto school targets to inform planning for progress. Thisalso includes the quality of the support and advice weprovide for teaching assistants in the classroom, wherethe focus should be on developing independence inchildren, positive attitudes and ensuring that childrenalso receive support from their class teacher.

Discussion also included the importance of eliciting the views of children and young people; facilitation ofteamwork; encouraging proactivity; and the impact onschool policy. The aim of the group now is to provide alink from the members’ area of the BATOD website tothe Progression Guidance and to develop an individual

education plan monitoring leaflet which will also beavailable on the website. There are also plans for anarticle in a forthcoming Magazine.

The third group looked at the Equality Act 2010 andthe associated Disability Data Collection Toolkit whichhave been recently published. The Equality Actreplaces and unifies existing equality schemes for disability, race and gender and will include anenhanced duty for schools to adapt for the needs ofdisabled pupils (currently under discussion) from April2011. This equality duty will require schools to, amongother things, advance equality of opportunity, removeor minimise disadvantage, take steps to meet people’sneeds, tackle prejudice and promote understanding. It was felt that the Act will provide a firm basis fordiscussion around maintaining specialist services inlocal authorities to provide advice and guidance forschools and help to fashion provision that meets theneeds of children with disabilities. The Toolkit providesa range of questionnaires to enable schools to elicitviews of pupils and parents. These will be trialled byseveral NEC members to evaluate their effectiveness.An article is planned for the November Magazine toprovide more detail around the impact of the Act fordeaf children.

The afternoon session was used for regular associationbusiness. Membership was discussed and there issome concern that a large number of members areapproaching retirement. There is an ongoing drive topromote recruitment and retention of members tosafeguard the long-term sustainability of BATOD. Are you aware that if you introduce a new member you get £10 off your membership? Special ‘Introduce a colleague to BATOD’ forms can be downloaded from the website (Membership). Members are also encouraged to contribute to BATOD throughinvolvement in activities around the regions andnations, and would be welcomed onto NEC followingannual elections.

In the light of recent fundamental changes to funding of services a draft paper has been written following a BATOD Steering Group special meeting. If notstatutory, then essential – maintaining services inchallenging times aims to provide some pointers andguidance for services around what their statutory dutiesare, together with a summary of sources of evidencefor the value and necessity of other features of theirwork, and the duties and powers that local authoritieshave to ensure this takes place. The paper was



What went on at NEC on 29 January 2011The National Executive Council gathered again to discuss BATOD business, as Andrea Baker reports

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discussed and endorsed and the aim is to publish it onthe open access area of the website in the near future.

The special meeting also brought together a number ofheads of service from across the country to provide anupdate on how different local authorities are meetingthe demands of change. The intention is to provide anumber of anonymised ‘models’ of provision on themembers’ area of the website for reference.

Reports from the President, National Executive Officerand regions and nations were addressed. Trish Copeand Wanda Garner are standing down from NEC andwere thanked for their hard work and commitment.They will be greatly missed. Mary Fortune has taken onthe role of Assistant Treasurer and Mary Gordon that ofMinuting Secretary, for which they were both warmlythanked.

Apologies were offered on behalf of the distributors forthe mix up with the January Magazine. One box ofMagazines from last year had found its way into the mailing and some colleagues were faced with aMagazine they had already read some months earlier!

The Peter Preston Award has been won by Jo Franklinfor her article on audiological testing in special schools.She will be presented with her award at the AGM inMarch. Jo has also offered to revise the BATODpublication Assessing Children with Complex Needswhich will then be available on the members’ area ofthe website. This is a great example of a membercontributing to the work of BATOD. We would like tohave more articles for the Magazine from practisingteachers, teaching assistants and others working withdeaf children. If you know of anyone doing outstandingor innovative work who would be willing to write a shortarticle, please get in touch with the Magazine Editor [email protected].

The meeting closed with a rallying call to remainpositive and celebrate success in these challengingtimes. With this in mind Gary Anderson pointed outthat, despite our relatively small size, BATOD puncheswell above its weight. Paul Simpson attends numerousmeetings and ensures that our voice is being listenedto where it matters.

Andrea Baker is a member of BATOD’s NEC.



BATOD was there representing you...Between the NEC meetings, members of BATOD attend various meetings that are of particular interest to Teachersof the Deaf. This list is not exhaustive. Your representatives at the meetings listed included: David Couch, ClaireIngham, Ann Pack, Seonaid Ryan, Karen Simpson, Paul Simpson, Carol Thomson

Date External participants Purpose of meeting Venue

January

7–8 Leonardo project Seventh partnership meeting Luxembourg11 CRIDE Survey development Frank Barnes school12 FLSE SEND conference The Bridge School, Islington13 University of Birmingham Course consultative committee Birmingham24 DESF Regular meeting RNID, London24 HAB UK Regular meeting London24 Skill Filming for DVD about entering

teaching profession London25 NatSIP Bid writing group and reference

group meetings NDCS, London27 Moray House Presentation to student ToDs Edinburgh

February

3 NatSIP Working Day London4 DfE Access to Year 1 Phonics Screen

(deaf education) DfE, London9 Film Education Access to Film Education’s activities London14 Ofqual Access Consultation Forum Coventry23 DfE Access to Year 1 Phonics Screen

(all SEN and disability) DfE, London

March

9 FLSE Green Paper summit Westminster, London14 AAQAG Regular meeting about examinations

and qualifications Cardiff

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We arrived at Luxembourg airport at 4pm as itwas beginning to get dark and the rain poureddown – an inauspicious start to what turned out

to be a hard-working and positive few days. We werearriving for the seventh meeting of the Leonardopartnership project looking at the establishment ofcompetencies for Teachers of the Deaf across Europe.This meeting was attended by representatives fromMalta, Belgium, Luxembourg and the UK. The projecthas been described in detail elsewhere in previouseditions of the Magazine.

At the previous meeting, the decision was taken to putthe survey online. We had sent round information tocolleagues across Europe asking them to complete the survey to let us know what they saw as corecompetencies as well as desirable ones. We didn’texpect much take-up around the Christmas period butwere pleased that we had had over 50 responses.By the time we left, our IT specialist reported at least another 40 contributions to the consultation.

BATOD’s involvement in the project is through itsmembership of FEAPDA of which I am the currentPresident. FEAPDA’s nominal headquarters (it is anentirely voluntary body with no staff or premises) isLuxembourg, thus funding comes though the Europeanagency for Luxembourg (each EU country has its own). There are very few Luxembourgers involved in FEAPDA because of its size, and the agency was quite concerned; it had never met such anarrangement before because normally the Luxembourgrepresentatives are from Luxembourg not Italy,Germany, Poland or the UK. They decided to carry out a monitoring visit in which three officials came toobserve some of the discussions and interview theLuxembourg contact person (me), looking at both the products and process. This took place on the first afternoon and after a rigorous discussion all was declared to be well, although they insisted thatFEAPDA be represented by more Luxembourgishpeople – two were already attending this meeting andwe agreed that two more would attend the final twomeetings to be held in Leuven (Belgium) and Malta.

Apart from this examination by officials we spent abusy two days analysing the early results and, themain task, working on two key documents; the first wasthe final report of the project without which we won’treceive the final tranche of funding (even if we havespent the money); the second, a more substantial anddetailed document we wish to use with EU officials tolobby them in relation to improving the Europe-wide

provision for deaf children. This second documentneeds to show that we have acquired evidence of the need for ToDs and for the competencies. We allworked on different sections of the draft, looking atnumbers and qualifications of ToDs as well as theprevalence of deafness across Europe and why it is important to know about it.

When Andrew Broughton first developed the idea ofthis project, his aim was not that the work should stoponce we had developed the competencies but that thiswould merely mark the end of the beginning. The nextstage would be crucial and would apply mainly to thosecountries where there is no specialist qualification forToDs. This would be the aim of the bid for a secondEuropean project – known as a transfer of innovation –through which the partners would need to argue thatthe product (the core and extension competencies)was an innovation which it would be valuable totransfer. The main engine of this would be training.Through the use of imaginative e-delivery as well asmore traditional face-to-face training, it would be hopedto use the newly established competencies as thevehicle through which to enhance the training of ToDsacross Europe and thus achieve the aim of the project– reducing the exclusion of vulnerable groups ofchildren, in this case deaf children. We discussed themechanisms for making such a bid and agreed it wasnot possible to start in 2011 but to concentrate onwriting a strong bid to start in 2012.

The final part of the meeting was devoted to workingon the content of the last two meetings. We agreedthat in Leuven in March we would do a full analysis ofthe results of the online consultation and draw up thefinal document and then, in Malta, deliver sometraining to the trainees from the partner countries whowere to be involved. This would involve some keynotelectures and workshops delivered by Europeancolleagues working in the profession.

Paul Simpson is the National Executive Officer ofBATOD and the President of FEAPDA.


Leonardo’s progressAs the project to establish competencies for ToDs in Europe reaches a critical

stage, Paul Simpson reports on the latest meeting held in Luxembourg

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R e g u l a r s

The emails urging me to visit the 2011 BETTexhibition started some time before Christmas,giving tantalising glimpses of the goodies which

would be on offer. Finally, information from Kudlianpersuaded me that I just had to go and takeadvantage of the10% discount on its latestpresentation and video software which I just had to have.

As usual the ‘big boys’ were in the grand halldownstairs with huge stands, while the smallercompanies tended to be upstairs in the galleries. Of course, you have to walk round it all so that youdon’t miss an exciting find.

My shopping list included a magnification device forone of our pupils who has a visual impairment, andthere were a number of stands with CCTV-basedproducts which would allow a book to be magnifiedand read more easily. I was particularly impressedwith the HumanWare stand, which had a number ofmodern solutions to the problem of making standardprint accessible to everyone. There were smallSmartView handheld devices which can be usedanywhere, such as in the library to check the detailsof a book or in the supermarket to read productlabels. One of these devices even had a built-inMP3 and video player. However, these are not theideal solutions for reading lots of text and for thisthere is a range of larger machines. HumanWare’smyReader2 machine scans up to ten pages of text and then does clever tricks with it, such asdisplaying the words one line at a time or evenword by word. The choices of colour for the text and background are huge and far in advance of themachine I remember using with a pupil in the early1990s which allowed white on black or black onwhite! There was also a similarly featured gadgetwhich attaches to an LCD monitor. For our pupil weare likely to buy a Zoom-Ex, a more portable devicewhich plugs into a computer. This captures the text

and then uses optical character recognition todisplay it in a clear font on the computer screen.The program will also read out the text if this is required. HumanWare offered to bring theequipment into school for my pupil to try, which will be extremely helpful – www.humanware.com/

Also on my list was a video clip library. A video clip is an amazingly powerful tool to use in a lesson, butsourcing these on the internet is time consuming andthere are also copyright issues. I was particularlyinterested to see if subtitles would be available.Years ago when video materials were sold on VHS, ifa resource was not subtitled I would request a copyof the transcript, preferably in electronic form and wewould subtitle it ourselves. With the advent of onlinevideos this has become far more difficult, so I wasoptimistic that the video clip libraries would haveaddressed the issue.

My first stop was Channel 4 Learning, whichdescribes its Clipbank as a unique learning servicefor secondary schools. There are short, curriculum-focused video clips for 16 subject areas, as well as‘news bites’, multimedia activities, teacher planningresources and home access. It was immediatelyclear from watching a demonstration on the standthat subtitles were not an option on the videoswhen displayed in full screen. When I queried this I was told that transcripts are available, although it was not clear whether this is for all or just someof the videos. The transcript can be displayedalongside the video clip which, while not aseffective as subtitles, is better than nothing at all – www.channel4learning.com/clipbank/

Next stop was the BBC Motion Gallery, which wasbeing exhibited on the UK Trade & Investmentstand. This is a library of high production qualityfactual content geared towards the needs ofeducators and students. There is news footage from

ICT newsSharon Pointeer had an enjoyable browse around the BETT Show in January and was

tempted by many of the resources on offer

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the BBC and CBS, as well as science, history andarts programmes and clips. There are thousands of clips available, but sadly again without subtitles. I was told that the majority of BBC footage doeshave subtitles, but that to make these available as part of the Motion Gallery would be costly andwould depend on what I needed! However, a visit to the website when I returned home revealed thatmany of the clips on the site could be used, asthere is no spoken dialogue or narration. Oneexample which would stimulate discussion in ahistory or social studies lesson was ‘25 Years ofNews’, which showed key events from 1984 to 2009. If all you want to do is show the clips in class then there is no need to download, and I thinkit is unlikely that schools will be purchasing anddownloading the clips when the starting price shownon the website is £74 per clip. It was suggested that I should register with the education site andsee whether the content would be of use beforesubtitles were discussed further. I will be doing this, if only to put them under pressure regardingsubtitles. Perhaps there are other colleagues outthere who could also enquire about subtitles, as themore requests they get for this, the more likely it isto happen and to a certain extent this is a disabilitydiscrimination issue – www.bbcmotiongallery.com/www.bbcmotiongalleryeducation.com/

My final, and by now not very optimistic, video stopwas at BrainPOP. These are cartoon-based videosand the last time I looked at their materials only theAmerican version had captions. However, I waspleasantly surprised to be told that not only are alltheir resources now available in British English, butsubtitles are available for all their clips. There areanimated movies, interactive quizzes and high-interest readings. All subjects of the Key Stage 2and Key Stage 3 National Curriculum are coveredand there is even a Featured Movie App which letsusers learn something new every day. The latestedition to the site is BrainPOP ESL which useslively, engaging content to teach English as asecond language – resources which may be useful

for hearing-impaired pupils. Clicking on ‘Free Stuff’on the website allows you to view and try out someof the resources, or you can sign up for a free trialif you want to look in more detail. I took advantageof the free 30-day trial on offer at BETT in order toevaluate the materials more thoroughly, and maywell add this to our growing bank of online materials– www.brainpop.co.uk/

Teachers are becoming increasinglyconcerned about the use ofcopyright photographs downloadedfrom the internet

Having failed to find the type of video resources I was seeking I turned my attention to photographs.Teachers are becoming increasingly concernedabout the use of copyright photographs downloaded from the internet when makingresources, particularly when these resources areshared on school websites and virtual learningenvironments. Two companies aiming to solve thisproblem were offering rights-cleared photographlibraries for use in education.

Edupics offers over 500,000 images in an onlinedatabase which can be searched quickly. Theimages are key-worded and captioned to makesearching easy. Images can be downloaded and stored on a school intranet in order to makethem accessible to other people in the school.Subscriptions depend on the number of picturesdownloaded. The website has a range of samplesshowing the types of images on offer –www.edupics.org/

Image Quest from Britannica gives access to more than two million images from 40 of the bestcollections in the world. Dorling Kindersley Images,Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery ofLondon, the National Geographic Society, OxfordScientific and other leading names have joined withBritannica to provide what they claim is the bestand broadest collection of proprietary educationalimagery. Again, images have key words andcaptions to make searching easy. Teachers can use the images in their lesson plans and classroomactivities, while it is expected that pupils will turn tothe site as they work on homework assignmentsand school or coursework projects. Unlike Edupics,the subscription is independent of the number ofpictures downloaded and if you already have asubscription to the school edition of BritannicaOnline, Image Quest is offered at a preferentialrate. I signed up for a free trial of all the productsand, while I was not considering buying an onlineencyclopaedia, if the price is right this may be away of enticing pupils away from the variable

R e g u l a r s

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validity of information on Wikipedia –www.britannica.co.uk/ebproducts/IQ.asp/

In the last Magazine I wrote about onlinelearning. While sites like SAM Learning, IAm Learning and Yacapaca are good forlanguage-based subjects, they can belimited for maths teaching. I came acrossa small stand belonging to SUMS Math.Here for the special offer price of £95 foran annual licence I was able to sign upfor its online service. There is a varietyof games aimed mainly at primary level;however, the activities could be used forolder pupils. The topics cover all areas ofthe National Curriculum and there areeasy and hard versions of the questions.There are also equivalent sites forScottish and Welsh users. The softwareis available on CD for home use and thecompany is developing a range ofnumeracy apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touchusers. The software will also work on PSP andAndroid devices. You can try out many of thegames on the website. The company also offers afree Learn Your Tables website with drill andpractice activities. An exploration of the SUMSwebsite will give links to all its other numeracy sites– www.sums.co.uk/

My final stop was with my friends at Kudlian whohave been in the educational software market foralmost as long as there have been computers inschools. You can always be sure that they will havesomething new, fun and exciting on offer and I wasnot to be disappointed.

I Can Present runs on both PCs and Macs and isdesigned to bring pupils’ presentations to life byallowing them to create, film and present their workusing green-screen technology. Pupils can choose a background for their presentation either from thebuilt-in library or by importing a suitable image file.Slides can then have a range of symbols placed onthem and a script for the presentation is written inthe editing area. To create a more authentic newsbroadcast feel, a watermark or scrolling news tickerfor breaking news can be added. A customisabledate and time stamp allows presentations to take place in the past, or even the future, depending onthe topic. There are maps and weather symbolsavailable, so the program can be used to makeweather forecasts. Once the presentation has beencompleted, the filming can take place in front of aChroma Key green screen to allow the presenter tobe superimposed on the background (see pictureon the left). Text written for each slide will scroll onthe built-in teleprompt, allowing users to puttogether a flawless broadcast. I have used the

Kudlian iMovie plug-ins for about five years forpupils to make weather forecasts. The maindrawback has been that the filming of the forecast andoverlaying it onto the weather map has been a two-stage process and pupils have had to guess wherethey needed to be pointing.

I was very impressed with the fact that, during filmingin I Can Present, pupils can see themselves on thecomputer screen superimposed on their chosenbackground, so pointing to the correct place on theirweather map will now be far easier. Kudlian has alsojoined forces with leading charities, media and newsstations to run a competition to find the best youngnews presenter. Details of the competition can befound by clicking on the EVENTS tab on its website.

I Can Animate is a great program for animation and anew version with even more features is due out soon.In the meantime, the I Can Animate app for iPhoneand iPod Touch was being demonstrated. This allowsthe user to create stop-frame animations by capturingframes using the in-built camera on these devices.The app displays onion skinning, ie as the photographsare being taken the previous photograph is ghosted inthe background to allow perfect positioning. Once thephotographs have been taken you can preview thewhole project and export the animation. Projects canbe transferred between the iOS device and a desktopcomputer. If you are using a Mac, animations canalso be shared through email, Multimedia MessagingService, MobileMe and YouTube via iMovie. If everthere was a justification to buy a new iPod Touch witha built-in camera, this has to be it – www.kudlian.net/

If you would like to contribute anything to thesepages, please contact Sharon Pointeer [email protected].

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Go RoundGo Round is a special project for schools forthe deaf around the world in which studentshave the opportunity to write to each other inEnglish by email.

The website at www.letsgoround.com offersteachers tips and support in setting up a GoRound project. They can access Englishteaching materials and other information freeof charge and find a suitable partner school.

The Go Round project offers students: • development of the English language• knowledge of differences between cultures• the means to meet deaf students from other

countries.

Go Round is already in contact with 24schools from Australia, Austria, Finland,Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Namibia, Norway,Scotland, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and theUSA. Visit the website for more informationand details of how to register.

Online supportLiz Compton-Jones has set up a nationalonline parent support group for children,families and adults affected by microtia and artresia. The group can be found onFacebook Microtia Mingle UK. Their firstevent took place in North London on 6 February. Email [email protected] further details about the group.

New booklet on cochlearimplant useA new publication from the National Cochlear Implant UsersAssociation (NCIUA) has been produced for potentialcochlear implant users and parents of deaf children, butprofessionals, including Teachers of the Deaf, associatedwith cochlear implantation may well find it useful reading.Cochlear implants: experiences of adults and childrencontains 18 experiences of users: parents recount the impactan implant has had on their children’s development andfamily life; teenagers and young people tell their stories; andadults of all ages describe how their implants have changedtheir lives. There is also an introduction that explains how an implant works and who can benefit and describes theimplantation procedures from assessment to rehabilitation.The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence(NICE) technology guidance on implants is clearly set out.

NCIUA is indebted to members of the Cochlear ImplantedChildren’s Support Group for providing the children’s stories.The booklet is illustrated with photographs and diagrams and is being distributed free thanks to the generosity of thesponsors of the publication. Copies may be ordered fromNCIUA, 70 Sycamore Road, Amersham, BuckinghamshireHP6 5DR; or email [email protected] (for single copiesthe cost of postage (£1) or two first class stamps would beappreciated).

This and that…Email news to [email protected]


R e g u l a r s

SIGNtific events at theScience Museum On the first Saturday of every month there areevents at the Science Museum that use deafpresenters and voice-over interpreters – theyare suitable for deaf and hearing audiences:www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/signtific/

If you have been to any of these events andwould like to share your experiences with otherreaders please contact Paul Simpson [email protected].

Celebrating the UK’shearing specialistsPeople of all ages around the UK are being invited to jointhe search for the country’s top hearing expert. Hearingaid wearers and the hard of hearing are encouraged tonominate hearing specialists for the 2011 RayovacAudiologist of the Year.

This exciting award aims to celebrate the skill anddedication of the UK’s 3,000 plus hearing professionalswho make a huge difference to the lives of their patients. Anyone interested in entering the competition can find outmore at www.audiologistoftheyear.eu where they can alsocast their vote. The closing date for entries is 15 July 2011.

The competition is run by Rayovac, manufacturer ofhearing aid batteries and the only maker of hearing aidbatteries in the UK. The winner of the UK award will thenrepresent the country in the European Audiologist of theYear Award, which will be judged later in 2011.

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Protecting vulnerablechildren onlineTwo new educational films and teaching resources havebeen launched by the Child Exploitation and OnlineProtection (CEOP) Centre – the UK’s national centre for child protection. The resources have been created by CEOPin the recognition that vulnerable young people and thosewith additional needs and learning difficulties can be moresusceptible to abuse, making the provision of online safetymessages in a variety of formats especially important.

Specialist child protection agencies and organisations thatwork with children with additional needs, learning difficultiesand deaf young people, including the NSPCC, Mencap, theNDCS and Triangle, have worked with the CEOP Centre tocreate the films – Know Your Friends with Josh and Sue foryoung people with special educational needs and learningdisabilities and Sam’s Real Friends for young deaf people.Although previous CEOP educational films have beensubtitled, this is the first time such resources have beencreated specifically relating to online safety for children withadditional needs.

Know Your Friends with Josh and Sue is a five-minuteanimated film depicting two friends who are the victims of cyberbullying and inappropriate contact online. Threeversions of the animation have been created to cater forchildren of all needs and these include mild to moderate,moderate to severe and audio only. Sam’s Real Friendsis a longer film and concentrates on a young boy whoexperiences the same issues of cyberbullying andinappropriate contact online. All actors use BSL and there aretwo versions of the film available, subtitled and non-subtitled.Lesson plans and suggested activity sheets are alsoavailable for each resource, allowing teachers and parents towork through the films with children in their care. For moreinformation visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/resources/

Parliamentary questionThe following question was put forward inParliament on 29 November 2010.

Valerie Vaz asked the Secretary of State forEducation:• what steps he is taking to ensure that deaf

children are able to receive high quality teachingin British Sign Language in mainstream schools

• what steps he is taking to ensure access toappropriate learning resources for deaf childrenattending mainstream schools

• what recent representations he has received onthe quality and availability of educational supportand resources for deaf children.

Sarah Teather replied: High quality teaching is the cornerstone to improving the educationaloutcomes for all children. The Governmentcurrently sponsors the I-Sign project, a three-yearpilot led by the RNID and the NDCS, whichsupports our position of giving parents greaterchoice by putting in place the British SignLanguage (BSL) skills infrastructure necessaryto make BSL a viable option for families.

Through investment in BSL courses for interpretersand tutors and the development of a new Level 3Certificate in Learning Support (CommunicationSupport Worker), the I-Sign pilot aims to helpimprove the educational attainment of deaf andhearing-impaired pupils by increasing the BSLskills of the workforce for ail those who work withdeaf children and families, including those inmainstream settings.

Mainstream schools have a duty to use bestendeavours to make the provision that a child’slearning difficulties require. We will be publishing a Green Paper on special educational needs and disabilities which will look at how to improvefamilies’ experience of the SEN system. As part of that, we will be looking at how to increase localsolutions to better enable localities to developprovision that makes the best use of staff andspecialist resources.

The Government values the important contributionfrom those organisations and individuals workingto support deaf children and their families andwelcome their input into how the needs of thesechildren can best be met. The recent NationalDeaf Children’s Society’s Hands up for help!report, as well as contributions received during the recent Green Paper Call for Views, will beconsidered in informing the development of theforthcoming Green Paper.

Continued funding for DCALDCAL, the Deafness Cognition and Language ResearchCentre, has announced that it has been awarded acontinuation of funding by the Economic and SocialResearch Council for five years. Over the next five yearsDCAL states that it will continue to ensure that itsresearch contributes to the improvement of clinical andeducational practice for d/Deaf individuals and the

MBE honourCongratulations to Elizabeth (Liz) Andrews who hasbeen awarded an MBE in the recent Honours List. Lizhas contributed a huge amount to the profession inmany ways and it is excellent that she has beenrecognised in this way.

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AAQAG Access to Assessment and Qualifications Advisory Group

ABR Auditory Brainstem Response

ACE Assessment of Comprehension and Expression

AGM Annual General Meeting

ANSD Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder

ASL American Sign Language

Baha Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid

BATOD British Association of Teachers of the Deaf

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BETT Education technology exhibition

BPVS British Picture Vocabulary Scale

BSA British Society of Audiology

BSL British Sign Language

BTEC Business and Technology Education Council

CBS US Broadcaster – Columbia Broadcasting System

CCTV Closed Circuit Televsion

CD Compact Disk

CEOP Child Exploitation and Online Protection

CI Cochlear Implant

CICS Cochlear Implanted Children’s Support

CRIDE Consortium for Research in Deaf Education

CSW Communication Support Worker

DAHIT Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Team

DAI Direct Audio Input

DCAL Deafness Cognition and Language (Research Centre)

DESF Deaf Education Support Forum

DfE Department for Education

DfES Department for Education and Skills

DIP Dyscalculia Intervention Programme

DIY Do It Yourself

DReaM Deafness and Reading for Meaning

DS Dual Screen

DVD Digital Versatile Disk

EM Electromagnetic

EOAE Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions

ESRC Economic and Social Research Council

ESL English as a Second Language

EU European Union

FEAPDA Fédération Européenne d’Associations de Professeurs de

Déficients Auditifs (European Federation of Associations

of Teachers of the Deaf)

FLSE Federation of Leaders in Special Education

FM Frequency Modulation (radio)

FS Functional Skills

GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education

HAB UK Hearing and Balance UK

HHLA Heuser Hearing and Language Academy

HI Hearing-Impaired/Impairment

HIT Hearing-Impaired Teenagers Transition (Group)

HOP Hearing Outcomes Project

HOT Hearing Outcomes in Teenagers

HRH His/Her Royal Highness

ICT Information and Communications Technology

iOS Apple’s mobile Operating System

IQ Intelligence Quotient

iSLanDS International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies

IT Information Technology

IWB Interactive Whiteboard

KS Key Stage

LCD Liquid Crystal Display

LSA Learning Support Assistant

M Microphone

MA Master of Arts

Mac (Apple) Macintosh Computer

Mencap Charity for people with learning disabilities

MFL Modern Foreign Language

MidYIS Middle Years Information System

MP3 Media Player

MSI Multi-Sensory Impairment

MT Microphone plus telecoil program

NASUWT National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of

Women Teachers

NatSIP National Sensory Impairment Partnership

NC National Curriculum

NCIUA National Cochlear Implant Users Association

NDCS National Deaf Children’s Society

NEC National Executive Council

NHS National Health Service

NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

NSPCC National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Ofqual Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator

PC Personal Computer

PhD Doctor of Philosophy (degree)

PIPS Performance Indicators in Primary School

PMLD Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties

PR Public Relations

PSP PlayStation Portable

RMDS Rocky Mountain Deaf School

RNID Royal National Institute for Deaf People

SCOD Scottish Council on Deafness

SEN Special Educational Needs

SENCO Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator

SEND Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Sense National charity for people with deafblindness

Skill National Bureau for Students with Disabilities

SLI Specific Language Impairment

SMART (of targets) Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant,

Time-based (other versions are available)

SORD Social Research with Deaf People

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

T program Telecoil program

TLR Teaching and Learning Responsibility

ToD Teacher of the Deaf

TROG Test for Reception of Grammar

UK United Kingdom

UNS Universal Newborn Screening

USA United States of America

VHS Video Home System

VIEW Visual Impairment: Education and Welfare:

professional association for teachers of visually

impaired children

WRIT Wide Range Intelligence Test

If you have found an acronym in the Magazine that isn’t explained

in this list, then use www.acronymfinder.com to help you to work

it out.

Abbreviations and acronyms used in this Magazine

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Date Organisation Meeting topic VenueMarch

19 BATOD Annual study day, Conference and AGM Newcastle Marriott Hotel

Communicating – Stronger together MetroCentre, Gateshead

NE11 9XF

20 BATOD NEC Association business Newcastle Marriott Hotel

MetroCentre, Gateshead

NE11 9XF

21 The Ear Foundation BAHA information day for rehabilitation The Ear Foundation,

professionals (date tbc) Nottingham NG7 2FB

21–22 Mary Hare Training Services ACE: Assessment of Comprehension and Expression Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

21 SCOD and Scottish Deaf Launch of DVD about Deaf Scottish people’s lives Paterson’s Land

History Group

22 NHS Newborn Hearing Innovations in Hearing CBI Conference Centre,

Screening Programme Centre Point Tower,

London WC1A 1DU

23 Mary Hare Training Services Breaking the News: impact of diagnosis of childhood Mary Hare School,

deafness on parents/carers Newbury RG14 3BQ

24 Mary Hare Training Services Open Day for Professionals (Mary Hare Secondary) Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

24 Scottish Sensory Centre Launching the Early Years DVD and the Scottish Scottish Sensory Centre

Early Years standards for multi agency teams

24 Frank Barnes School Creating a World Class School for the Deaf – Ort House Conference Centre,

Innovations in Audiology 126 Albert Street, London

NW1 7NE

28–30 Mary Hare Training Services BSA Certificate in Otoscopy & Impression Mary Hare School,

Taking for Parents (Paediatric) Newbury RG14 3BQ

31–1 April Mary Hare Training Services Reynell Developmental Language Scales Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

April

1 Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service Learning to listen: moving on for class teachers, The Listening for Life Centre,

teaching assistants and other support workers Bradford Royal Infirmary,

Bradford BD9 6RJ

2 Science Museum SIGNtific – free family event with deaf presenters Science Museum,

London SW7 2DD

4 The Ear Foundation BAHA information day for audiologists The Ear Foundation,

Nottingham NG7 2FB

4 Mary Hare Training Services Literacy for Deaf Students and Adults Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

6–8 City University, London Assessing BSL Development – Production City University, Northampton

Test (Narrative Skills) Square, London EC1V 0HB

7 Mary Hare Training Services Supporting Deaf Teenagers: coping with teenage angst Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

15 Science Museum SIGNtific – free family event with deaf presenters Science Museum,

(BSL & voiceover) London SW7 2DD

May

4 Mary Hare Training Services Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA) Mary Hare School,

Newbury RG14 3BQ

Meetings and training CalendarThis page is an extract from the Calendar to be found on the BATOD website. Please note that it is not exhaustive. Itemsnoted on this Calendar may have been advertised within the Magazine or the information reported by telephone. BATOD isnot necessarily the organising body. Please contact the organising body (column 2) for details of conferences, not the Editor of this Magazine.

The Calendar on the BATOD website is edited as soon as we know about meetings. Additional information about courses and registration forms may also be linked to the calendar entries.

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Officers of Nations and RegionsBATOD contacts and Magazine DistributionNorthern IrelandChairperson: Janice McKillop, 6 Kingsfort Lodge, Old Kilmore Road. Moira, Craigavon BT67 0QGSecretary: Heather Lammey, 45 The Oaks, Newtownards, County Down BT23 8GZTreasurer: Antonette Burns, 39 Wynchurch Avenue, Rosetta, Belfast BT6 0JPScotlandChairperson: Jean McAllister, 26 Willowdale Crescent, Glasgow G69 7NLSecretary: Eleanor Hutchinson, Flat 1, Royal Exchange House, Newmarket Street, Falkirk FK1 1JYTreasurer: Anne Pack, 63 High Beveridgewell, Dunfermline, Fife KY12 9ERWalesChairperson: Revolving post (contact via the National Executive Officer [email protected])Secretary: Lisa Whitney, Queen Elizabeth High School, Llansteffan Road, Johnstown, Carmarthen SA31 3NLTreasurer: Rhian Gibbins, Rhianfa, 24c Forest Hill, Aberdulais, Neath SA10 8HDEastChairperson: Kathryn Cutmore, 29 Chapel Road, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex CM9 9TLSecretary: Sara Brierton, 16 College Road, Impington, Cambridge CB24 9TDTreasurer: Karen Taylor, CSSS, Woodside Road, Norwich NR7 9QLMidland Chairperson: Cate Latchford, Buxton House,The Row, All Stretton, Shropshire SY6 6JSSecretary: Angie Wootten, 21 Lugtrout Lane, Solihull, West Midlands B91 2SBTreasurer: Robert Miller, 13 Derby Close, Broughton Astley, Leicestershire LE9 6BENorthChairperson: Elaine Rayner, 25 Frosterley Drive, Great Lumley, Chester-le-Street, County Durham DH3 4SJSecretary: Trish Cope, 23 North Drive, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6LXTreasurer: Mary Fortune, 30 Alexandra Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington WA4 2UTSouth Chairperson: Seonaid Ryan, Overton Grange School, Stanley Road, Sutton SM2 6QTSecretary: Joyce Sewell-Rutter, The Ewing Foundation, 40 Bernard Street, London WC1N 1LGTreasurer: Post vacantSouth West Chairperson: Wanda Garner, 10 Ashleigh Road, Exmouth EX8 2JYJoint Secretary: Hazel Sutherland, 8 Osney Crescent, Paignton, Devon TQ4 5EY;

Denise Tudor, Cliff Court, Cliff Road,Torquay TQ2 6RETreasurer: Beverley George, 8 Forder Heights, Plymouth PL6 5PZ

BATOD Magazine distribution from:The Seashell Trust, Stanley Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire SK8 6RQ

Association Magazine ISSN 1366-0799Published by The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, 41 The Orchard, Leven, Beverley HU17 5QA

Printed by The Nuffield Press Ltd, 21 Nuffield Way, Ashville Trading Estate, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 1RLMagazine Project Manager: Kath Mackrill

Articles, information and contributions for theAssociation Magazine should be sent to:

BATOD Executive OfficerMr Paul Simpson

tel/fax 0845 6435181email [email protected]

...as should Association information and generalqueries.

Advertisements for the Association Magazineshould be sent to:

Mr Arnold UnderwoodBATOD Publishing and Advertising41 The OrchardLeven, BeverleyEast YorkshireHU17 5QA

tel/fax 01964 544243email [email protected]

Full guidelines for submissions and abstracts ofpapers published in the Journal ‘Deafness andEducation International’ are to be found atwww.maney.co.uk/instructions_for_authors/dei

Enquiries related to the Journal to:Dr Linda Watson

email [email protected]

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.editorialmanager.com/dei

DISCLAIMERThe Editors and the Association do not necessarily endorse

items or the contents of advertisementspublished in the Magazine and cannot accept

responsibility for any inaccuracies.Please note that items from this Magazine may not be

reproduced without the consent of BATOD and the sourcemust be acknowledged.

Photocopying items may breach copyright.

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