Why government needs to act now to improve opportunities for deaf children

Deaf children are currently at risk of a lifetime of disadvantage without access to early and effective support to develop the language and communication skills they need to thrive.  Stark statistics from the National Deaf Children’s Society in 2023, show only 38% of deaf children in England completed their first year of school having achieved expected levels of development, compared with 66% of all children.

This needs to change. The government has demonstrated its ambition in this area: one of its key milestones is to increase the number of children with good levels of early childhood development to 75%. So, what can be done?

Early support must be available for all deaf children whether their families wish to use spoken language, sign language, or both. We heard this loud and clear from MPs in Westminster Hall. It is time for action.

Watching on from the public gallery in this week’s debate was 13-year-old Sam and his parents Jo and Andy, who had no prior experience of deafness when Sam was born. It was a friend of a friend, or rather fate, who told them about our family programme of therapy that was supporting families to develop their child’s listening and spoken language skills in the critical first few years of their lives.

The technique supports deaf babies and children to make sense of the sound they receive through their hearing technology, like cochlear implants and hearing aids, and develop spoken language. It is delivered by speech and language therapists, teachers of the deaf and audiologists who have undergone postgraduate training.

But with no therapists in their local services, Jo, Andy and Sam travelled the 250-mile round trip from Eastbourne to Oxford fortnightly to visit our charity, Auditory Verbal UK. As Sharon highlighted in the debate, they are sadly not alone – less than 10% of deaf children can currently access appropriate therapy in the UK.  

After three years Sam achieved the same spoken language skills as a child of his age. He thrives in school and loves science. He now dreams of becoming an astrophysicist. The world is his oyster.

The international evidence base for children accessing the therapy echoes this.  Around 80% of deaf children who spend at least two years on our therapy programme achieve age-appropriate spoken language. And our 2022 report found the majority of deaf children are attaining educational outcomes on a par with hearing children. In Denmark, a recent government funded pilot programme showed 84% of the children acquired age-equivalent spoken language after three years of therapy, compared to only 30% before. It’s now been rolled out nationally there.

So what are we waiting for here in the UK?

In the debate we heard from MPs from all parties that urgent government investment is needed to train a small proportion of the current public sector workforce already working with deaf children under five in local services. This would equip those speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf with the additional skills in Auditory Verbal therapy to access this programme wherever they live, through publicly funded services  

Economic analysis has shown for an investment of just over £2 million a year for the next 10 years - or as James Frith MP put it, “a fraction, a for a rounding error of the NHS budget” - we could transform services for deaf children and deliver £152 million of economic benefit, rising to £11.7 billion over 50 years.

Many public sector professionals working with deaf children recognise the value of and need to further increase their skills in developing optimal listening and spoken language for families who want their deaf child to learn to listen and speak. Those who have trained in the approach recognise the significant growth in their knowledge and skills and practice.

Thanks to the generosity of organisations, individuals and charitable trusts, there are speech and language therapists and teachers of the deaf, starting their training in Auditory Verbal therapy but urgent investment is needed to ensure there are enough to support up to 7,200 deaf children under the age of five across the UK.

We can’t let the opportunities of deaf children be determined by where they live or how much money they have any longer. We need to end the postcode lottery and ensure all families who want their deaf child to learn to listen and talk can access Auditory Verbal therapy via the public services where they live. And we need to ensure all families have access to the support they need whether they wish to use spoken language, sign language or both.

I welcome the Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock’s agreement to meet to with us to discuss further the actions needed to ensure deaf children can get the best start in life. The message from Sam was clear: "It’s time to hear us now."

 By Anita Grover and first published by CYP Now