Closed petition Support deaf children by making a financial commitment to restoring Teacher of the Deaf numbers
Teachers of the Deaf play a vital role in supporting the language and communication development of deaf children. They provide advice to families of deaf children, visiting them at school or college – supporting their education and provide guidance to mainstream teachers on deaf awareness.
But Wales has lost one-in-five Teachers of the Deaf since 2011. There are around 2,300 deaf children in Wales.
I am mum to 5-year-old Lola, who is profoundly deaf and 2-year-old Rudi, who is severely deaf.
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Deaf children living in a hearing world need ongoing support. But Lola and Rudi currently receive just one hour of support a week from a Teacher of the Deaf. Calculated over a year, during school time, that’s 37 hours, which does not even equate to my working week. I believe all deaf children should see a Teacher of the Deaf at least once a week regardless of level of deafness.
Lola is in a mainstream primary school, which is right for her, but had she gone to a special provision, she would be seeing specialists and other deaf children every day. Her progress is aspirational but if the technology fails, we have very little to fall back on.
I believe there is also a vital need for more targeted support for the parents of deaf children. More than nine-in-ten deaf children are born to hearing parents, with no experience of deafness. When we discovered Lola was deaf, I was shellshocked. I was also oblivious to my complete lack of deaf knowledge.
This petition is now under consideration by the Petitions Committee
Petitions that collect more than 250 signatures are discussed by the Petitions Committee