Top tips for promoting early communication for children who are deaf or hearing impaired
- Make sure you are not standing with the sun or bright light behind you when communicating with your child
- Get down to the child’s level when communicating
- Encourage the child to look at your face and pay attention to you. The child will be interested in looking at you if you use various facial expressions. Play games to build on anticipation e.g. Peek a boo. Vary your voice, facial expressions and gestures to encourage the child to begin to pay attention to you
- Maintain eye contact while you communicate with each other
- Smile and nod
- Let your face show the same feeling that your child is showing
- Speak or sing a song to them
- Wait expectantly for more communication
- Use simple gestures
- When out and about name, point, name an item of interest, giving your child time to look at what you are pointing at
When talking give child time to process information. If you talk non-stop a child will become bored and “zone out”. Communication needs to be meaningful, interesting and fun - Attract child to new sounds. Stop point to your ear “listen” point and name. Home and when out and about
- If you have time warn the child when for e.g. a big lorry is coming. Stop, if possible show child approaching lorry, name lorry. Loud sudden noises are frightening
- Keep background noise to a minimum. Turn off the TV when playing and communicating with your child
- Talk to your child when changing, play making noises, tickling, use facial expressions
- Lots of action songs. Leave gaps when you sing to allow child to take a turn
- Copy child’s babble patterns and mould them into real words. “dada yes Daddy”
- Share picture books with your child. Peek and find books are great
- Make photo books of family members or to record visit to the zoo etc. A great resource to practice naming, recalling events and activities
- Share book at bed time
Top tips for communicating with a deaf child or young person
Get their attention
To get a deaf child’s attention you can call their name, wave, knock a table, or tap their shoulder lightly.
Face them when you’re talking
Try to get down to their level so that they can see your face clearly. Don’t move around while you’re talking as this will make it impossible for the child to hear your voice and lip read.
Speak clearly and naturally
Deaf children will try to lip read, so they need you to say words as you normally would. Speaking slowly or too loudly makes lip reading much more difficult.
Help with lip-reading
Covering your mouth with your hands, eating, chewing gum or smoking can make lip reading very difficult. It will also muffle any sound you’re making.
Reduce background noise
Hearing aids and cochlear implants amplify a child’s hearing, which means they have to concentrate very hard on your voice to hear it over everything else. Background noises such as students chatting loudly can make it difficult for a child to listen. Block out unnecessary noise as much as possible by closing windows, doors and turning machines off.
Use visual cues, where possible
Point to what you’re talking about, and don’t be shy about using gestures to support your communication. For example, if you’re telling a group of children dinner is ready, you can do a knife and fork action and point to the dinner table.
Make it clear what the topic of conversation is
The child will find it easier to guess your words if they know what you’re talking about. Make sure the deaf child knows when the topic changes.
Speak one at a time
Group conversations can be difficult for a deaf child to follow. Make it easier by asking everyone to take their turn talking and to make a sign if they want to speak next
Stand with your face to the light
Standing by a window or in poor lighting makes lip reading very difficult.
Never give up or say “I’ll tell you later”
Deaf children have told us someone saying “I’ll tell you later” is their absolute pet hate. They want to be involved just like their friends, so if one method doesn’t work, don’t be scared to improvise. You can try texting on your phone, emailing, or good old fashioned pen and paper.