7th May 2024 • My Family Our Needs

To recognise National Deaf Awareness Week 2024, we’re sharing three real life stories in collaboration with the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Emma knew that her son Isaac would need support at primary school – and she was ready to fight for it. This is her story.

Since finding out about Isaac’s progressive hearing loss at the newborn hearing screening, Emma threw herself into learning more about deafness and advocating for her son. ‘We were devastated when we found out he was deaf,’ she says, ‘as our firstborn, he was all we knew. But we made so many deaf friends that it normalised hearing aids for Isaac. He didn’t see himself as different.’

I knew he wouldn’t cope at school

But because of his speech and language delays, Emma knew Isaac would need extra support at school. ‘I knew he wouldn’t cope at school. I was worried he wouldn’t be able to express his needs, even to say he needed to go to the toilet.’ She initially asked the nursery if they could apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for him, but they refused. ‘So, I decided to apply on my own. At nursery they knew him very well and understood what his gestures meant, but they’d assessed him incorrectly. Our Teacher of the Deaf (ToD) backed me up and sent in a supporting letter with the application.

‘We got an assessment straight away and an educational psychologist came into nursery. It was clear Isaac was using coping strategies to get by, like copying the other children when he didn’t understand the teacher. They agreed with me and the EHCP was approved. It was really nice to be heard as a parent.’

His speech came on so much

The EHCP came into place for Isaac before he started primary school. As well as assistive technology like a radio aid and a soundfield system, the EHCP entitled Isaac to a full-time one-to-one teaching assistant (TA). ‘The TA was there to react to his needs. If he was struggling, she’d take him out of the classroom. She used British Sign Language (BSL) signs with him and had a speech and language programme in place.

‘His speech came on so much. He went from one word to being able to have a very short conversation with you to express his needs. When he started school, they re-assessed him and found he hadn’t met the early year foundation stage criteria the nursery said he had. It was nice to have a fresh pair of eyes on that; they revised his targets down and suddenly they were achievable for him.’

The additional support was essential

But despite the additional support, it wasn’t all plain sailing. ‘When he first started school, he loved it and settled really well,’ Emma said, ‘but he became frustrated quite quickly. He was starting to hit out and get quite cross, purely because the school staff couldn’t understand what he wanted. And he was tired too, going in five days a week, so he used to have after-school meltdowns.

‘In his first year, he got sent home three times. I think it was sensory overload. But the school learnt how to manage him. He just needed to go outside for a run or do a quiet activity in the corridor, then he’d be fine.

‘Having one-to-one speech and language with his TA really helped too. He started to ask ‘why’ questions – I couldn’t wait for him to ask ’why’ questions and now I’m starting to regret that!’

Emma feels that the additional support was essential for Isaac and she’s glad she fought for his EHCP. ‘My advice for an EHCP application would be to document everything,’ she adds. ‘It’s evidence-based, so keep as much evidence as possible – everything you receive. And get as many people to support your application as possible.’

For more information about EHCPs, what they are and how to apply for them, click here.

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