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| Page | Article | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Focus articles | ||
| 4 | Searching for answers | Most families want to know why their child is deaf, whether there is a possibility of further children being deaf and whether the deafness will progress over time and, in addition, if there are any medical or surgical treatments available. Medical investigation to look for the cause of permanent childhood deafness should be offered to all families, irrespective of the degree of deafness. Dr Breege Mac Ardle, a consultant in audiovestibular medicine at the Nuffield Hearing and Speech Centre in London, takes a look at the main causes of deafness in children and explains the whole process of investigation. |
| 7 | Exploring genetics | Genetic counsellor Rachel Belk delves into the area of genetic counselling, which brings together science, counselling, communication and the real experiences of individuals and families in a unique way, but one that has a lot of parallels with the communication of information through teaching in ways that are matched to an individual�s interests and needs. |
| 11 | Meningitis � the facts | An issue focusing on the causes of deafness would not be complete without an article on meningitis. Most Teachers of the Deaf will at some point work with children deafened by the disease, and this article by Laura Clark, an epidemiologist at the Meningitis Research Foundation, will provide some background information and detail about how it affects those that contract it. It mainly focuses on hearing loss in children, as this is the group most commonly affected as a result of meningitis. |
| 12 | Congenital cytomegalovirus | Congenital cytomegalovirus is the leading cause of non-hereditary deafness in children. It is also one of the main causes of unilateral, delayed onset and progressive sensorineural hearing losses and is an important cause of vestibular dysfunction (balance disorders). cCMV also causes a range of other disabilities. The virus is the second leading cause of learning difficulties and is the leading cause of cerebral palsy in children. Despite this, many health professionals, parents and Teachers of the Deaf have little awareness of the condition. Jayne Ramirez Inscoe seeks to throw some more light on this aetiology of deafness. |
| 14 | CMV � a parent�s perspective | Carmen Burton�s daughter Natalie was born in 1993 with congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV). Despite being diagnosed as profoundly deaf at around four months deafness is and has always been the least of her problems Despite her problems, Natalie has made a success of school and is now embarking on A-levels. As Co-ordinator of the UK CMV Association, Carmen is also well placed to provide some fact and figures about other children with CMV and how they deal with their hearing problems. |
| 16 | Who are the tests really for? | Although the philosophies underpinning medicine remain pretty much a constant, the delivery of that healthcare is changing. In many services for deaf children, the professionals have already moved from expert hierarchical deliveries to participatory models of care, with parents taking a central role. Within this supportive framework, aetiological investigations are vital for many parents. However, a survey undertaken by Peter Watkin of Whipps Cross University Hospital and the EaST 17 Early Support Team in London indicates that earlier aetiological investigations do not filter down to many deaf young people. Counselling the parents simply isn�t enough � we need to provide deaf young people with greater medical understanding of their deafness. |
| 18 | Living with TCS | Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) is a hereditary condition resulting in abnormalities of the skull and facial bones, which ranges from a form which is so mild it may only be diagnosed in an adult following the birth of a more severely affected child, to so severe that it can result in perinatal death. With an incidence of around one in 50,000 live births it is rare and is thought to arise from abnormal development of the foetus at around four to eight weeks gestation. ToD Alex Wheeler provides an overview of the condition and adds her own personal experiences of living with TCS. |
| 20 | Complex provision | The Royal School for Deaf Children Margate and Westgate College currently cater for children and young people with around 20 different medical conditions and syndromes that are directly linked with deafness � Down syndrome, CHARGE syndrome, CMV and Treacher Collins syndrome to name but a few. In addition, many more have conditions such as chromosomal disorders and unspecified global developmental delay, with deafness as just one part of a multiple disability. Approximately 16% of its population has been diagnosed within the autistic spectrum and a further 30% with mental health problems. Principal Wendy Eadsforth and teacher and audiologist Jill Millward describe how staff are committed to meeting the challenge of these young people with complex needs. |
| 22 | The Usher child | About five per cent of those who are born with affected hearing, including some with a progressive hearing loss, have Usher syndrome. There is every chance that any professional working with deaf children and young people will come across at least one Usher child. Usher is hereditary and is caused by a recessive gene. In this article, Marylin Kilsby from Sense describes the main features of the condition and the possible treatments available. |
| 24 | At Donaldson�s | Donaldson�s is Scotland�s national school for children who are deaf or have speech and language difficulties. Situated in Linlithgow in the central belt, the school is one of the Scottish Government�s grant-aided special schools. The age range of the children is from two-and-a-half years up to 18 years and they as well as hearing loss, many pupils have a range of additional complex needs arising from a variety of aetiologies. With this in mind, service delivery at Donaldson�s is focused around purpose-built accommodation, an on-site multi-disciplinary team and the continual development of appropriate child-centred intervention strategies, as Joe O�Donnell, educational audiologist, and Marjorie Douglas, Head of Speech and Language Therapy at Donaldson�s, reveal. |
| 25 | Training needs | The Seashell Royal School Manchester is a co-educational and non-maintained school for learners aged between two and 19 years who have complex learning disabilities combined with significant communication difficulties, including little or no oral language. The learners� needs arise from sensory and multi-sensory impairment combined with severe and/or profound learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders and physical and medical conditions. In one of our occasional articles on learning support, Anne Gough describes the levels of skill and training required by staff to deliver the high standard of support for learners at the school. |
| 26 | The road to Suryapur | The World Health Organisation estimates in 2005 suggested that there were 278 million people worldwide with disabling hearing impairment and, of these, 63 million (6.3%) were found in India. Indian nationwide surveys have concluded that hearing loss is the second most common cause of disability after locomotor disabilities; 66.3% of conductive loss in India (often permanent) may be caused by chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM). Drawing on her experiences in a school for deaf and blind girls near Kolkata, retired educational audiologist Ruth Tolland outlines some of the issues facing deaf education in India. |
| General features | ||
| 30 | Cochlear implants � not always enough? | For nearly 20 years cochlear implants have been recommended for children who are born deaf or lose their hearing during childhood or adolescence. With the arrival of cochlear implants many areas of existing rehabilitation have been questioned, for example early parent support, sign language and choice of school. Bengt Danielsson and Ola Hendar consider the impact that the development of cochlear implants has had on rehabilitation of deaf and hearing-impaired children in Sweden. |
| 32 | Higher level thinking | Within the classroom and within every exam syllabus there is now the implicit expectation that higher level thinking skills and their terminology will be used by students and assessed in exams. However, some of our hearing-impaired students will face extreme difficulties processing, applying and exhibiting these skills. It�s such a lot of words. It involves a lot of quick thinking and a good grasp of both concrete and abstract concepts. ToD Wendy Booth-Boyd seeks to find a method to help hearing-impaired secondary school students to acquire the skills they need. |
| 35 | VI facts and figures | According to statistics published by the DCSF, based on the returns from the School Census, pupils with visual impairment as their primary special educational need (SEN) perform better at GCSE than all other SEN groups. However, the statistics indicate that their attainment is still considerably below that of their non-SEN peers. Sue Keil, a research officer with the Children and Young People's team at the RNIB, looks at the findings and their possible implications for pupils with hearing impairment. |
| 38 | Phonics guidance | Phonics forms the central point for early literacy programmes today, but how accessible is the teaching of phonics for deaf children? NDCS decided that detailed advice should be available to mainstream teachers to enable them to meet the varied needs of deaf pupils. In 2009, it convened a group to write such guidance comprising representatives from BATOD, Ewing Foundation and The Ear Foundation with NDCS as project manager of the group. This guidance is now available, and Trish Cope, an education consultant for the Ewing Foundation, explores the details involved. |
| 39 | News from NatSIP | Lindsey Rousseau has details of the latest activities and aims of the National Sensory Impairment Partnership, which has been busy canvassing support in order to continue with the important work it has undertaken in improving outcomes (with reference to Every Child Matters) for children and young people with sensory impairments, and narrowing gaps with their peers, through joint working in services for these children |
| 40 | The end of an era | At the end July 2010 Ovingdean Hall School for the Deaf sadly closed its doors for the last time. The closure was announced in March 2010 and was attributed by trustees to declining student numbers over the past few years, and the impact of the inclusion agenda on special education. The closure is mourned by many in the deaf world: students, parent and carers, staff, professionals and academics all contacted the school to convey their deepest sympathy and ongoing support in the last months. Former Head of Education at Ovingdean Sarah Wild reports on this sad event. |
| 41 | Vocab test results | In the November 2009 issue of the BATOD Magazine, Wolfgang Mann reported on a new project that had just started, exploring deaf children�s vocabulary development in BSL. He and his team had developed a web-based test to measure children�s strength of vocabulary knowledge, the BSL Vocabulary Test (BSL�VT). With the first stage of the project now complete, Wolfgang and his colleague Chlo� Marshall are in a position to report on the first set of results and outline their plans for the next stage |
| 42 | Sound equipment management | At St Clement�s School, Jersey, there is a Total Communication Centre which provides an island resource base and specialist support for children who are profoundly or severely deaf. As the school has been recently built, great thought and planning have gone into the construction to ensure that it meets building regulations regarding acoustics and has the necessary environmental equipment built into the fabric of the building. Working practices and procedures have been put in place to allow staff and children regularly to monitor and enhance the listening environment, as key worker Doreen Mills explains. |
| 44 | Meeting social care needs | Many of us, both Teachers of the Deaf and social workers will, in the recent past, have been part of some sort of reorganisation. Where we are then placed in the organisation and with whom we are reorganised seems to be as varied as the number of local authorities (LAs) that exist. Even if, superficially, structures of services look similar, as soon as one starts digging deeper, differences emerge. Recent research (by the University of Manchester, funded by the NDCS) into social care provision for deaf children and their families in different local authorities has thrown up some worrying trends, as Ros Hunt reveals. |
| 47 | Testing the network | Pupils and staff at Carnoustie High School have been at the forefront of new technology for deaf pupils through their participation in a trial of the new Phonak inspiro MultiTalker Network. Feedback from the trial has been most encouraging, as Gill Ferris, peripatetic teacher of the hearing-impaired, reveals. |
| Regulars | ||
| 54 | ICT news | Always looking for innovative ways to engage pupils and enhance learning, Sharon Pointeer was interested to hear about the work being done at Clunbury School in Shropshire using Nintendo DS gaming consoles in the teaching of maths. Intrigued, she purchased some for use at Knightsfield School. In this article, Maths Co-ordinator Andrea Louie Smith explains how they have been received by the pupils. |
| 56 | This and That | Items from the postbag and e-mail inbox that could be pinned on the noticeboard for you to read!
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| 58 | Abbreviations in this issue | A lifesaver � the page that every ToD turns to when confronted with a set of meaningful uppercase letters |
| Reviews | ||
| 52 | Feelings and Emotions DVD | Sue Watters, peripatetic Teacher of the Deaf from Northamptonshire examines this DVD intended to promote discussion of pupils� feelings. |
| 52 | Connectors and Shockwave titles | Sue Watters takes a look at some of the new books in these popular series from Scholastic. |
| 52 | Understanding and Managing DSP Hearing Aids | Peripatetic ToD Corinda M Carnelley gives a brief overview of this short DVD about testing DSP hearing aids. |
| Association Business | ||
| 3 | Stronger together | In a period of uncertainty for the education sector, BATOD is working hard to strengthen partnerships and support everyone involved in the education of deaf children. New President Gary Anderson reports on some of the Association�s activities currently taking place. |
| 48 | Drafting ToD competencies in Europe | Since the article Paul Simpson wrote in the May 2010 Magazine about the Leonardo project, further progress has been made as a result of two more meetings � one in Leuven and one in Malta. The project � to develop competencies for Teachers of the Deaf which would be applicable across the continent of Europe, with the overriding aim of reducing the exclusion of deaf children through appropriate support and intervention from Teachers of the Deaf � has now reached the stage at which some initial moves towards consultation can be made, as Paul reports. |
| 50 | BATOD was there representing you | Between the NEC meetings, members of BATOD attend various meetings that are of particular interest to Teachers of the Deaf. This list is not exhaustive as some reports have not yet been received or meetings reported on, some are meetings booked for the near future. This list also appears on the website in the Calendar folder. |
| 51 | What went on at NEC on 12 June 2010 | The summer meeting of the NEC took place in London as a further attempt to cut down costs. A most productive morning spent in workstream groups was followed in the afternoon by feedback from the various groups, regions and nations as well as the usual reports from the President, Executive Officer and Treasurer. President-elect Karen Taylor gives her account of the day. |
| 53 | Have you moved? Change of address form | Reading a colleague's Magazine? Wondering what has happened to your copy? If you are not receiving your BATOD Magazine and Journal perhaps it is because we have no record of your current address. Put this right by completing the form and returning it to the BATOD Membership Secretary, or simply email from here. |
| 59 | Subscription Rates | Annual Membership subscription rates apply from 1st August. |
| inside back cover | Officers of Regions and Nations | Contact addresses of officers of BATOD Regions and Nations |
| Calendar | ||
| 60 | Meetings to know about | Advertised courses and meetings which are of interest to BATOD members.
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