Our experts at The Elizabeth Foundation have created a comprehensive series of guidance papers about deafness and how it affects the development of children from birth to five years.
They have also written guidance papers explaining hearing tests, audiograms, and checking and maintaining your child’s hearing technology, as well as using music to help deaf children’s communication skills.
As soon as they are born, babies start communicating. Even children with profound deafness are keen to communicate with you right from infancy.
Browse through our guidance papers or use the buttons to filter them by your child's age and/or course.
Singing and all types of musical activities with babies, toddlers and preschoolers can be great fun – and also can make a significant impact on their natural language skills. They can also be an excellent way for the family to relax together, to bond together and simply enjoy being together. Here are some tips to help you focus on different areas of listening and speech with your child.
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Music and songs can have a positive impact on children’s development – particularly on their listening, language and social skills. For deaf children, the rhythm, repetitions and pitch of music and songs can also help them develop more natural-sounding language.
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Now your child has been given their hearing aids, how do you fit them, keep them in and maintain them? This page will provide you with the answers!
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After your child’s hearing tests, your audiologist will provide you with an audiogram – this is a graph which shows your baby’s level of deafness measured in that particular test. Over time, your child’s audiograms from a range of tests will help you and your audiologist get a full picture of your child’s deafness. This page helps to explain how to make sense of an audiogram – again we have kept all of his information on a single page so it is easier for you to bookmark and find at a later date.
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Audiologists use many different hearing tests. The ones they use will depend on the age of your child, what they are trying to find out, and the nature of their deafness. We will now explain the different types of hearing tests used and the terms you might hear. We have kept all of this information on one page so it is easier for you to refer back to whenever you need.
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As a parent of a deaf child, you might find it helpful to understand in a little more detail how the ear works and the process of hearing.
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There are many factors you need to consider when selecting your child’s first school – in this lesson we will take you through some of them.
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In order to know more about your child’s current language level you may want to begin collecting a language sample. The information it provides will give you direction as you help your child develop and expand their language. Some parents may find it helpful to do a formal language sample, as we explain on this page. Even if you decide not to collect a language sample, please read the information and take note of the types of phrases your child uses, the intention your child expresses, and the information your child knows. You can do this formally or informally, but it will provide very useful information for ways to move forward.
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Now your child is reaching the age when they can participate in reading and telling stories, reading books together will help them develop their vocabulary and language skills. But you can also looks for words to read during your everyday activities such as shopping.
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