Support for children

The team works with Deaf children and their families to support parents in understanding their Deaf child's needs and provides advice and information to empower parents to make informed choices for their Deaf child. Some of the children we work with have additional needs such as autism, learning disability or physical disabilities like Cerebral Palsy. We work with Deafblind children and their families. (Sometimes this is called a dual sensory impairment)

For some children, a worker from the team will be the child's social worker; for others, we work alongside social workers from children's services.

When appropriate we provide communication programmes, delivered by Deaf adults, to families with pre-school Deaf children. There are 3 different programmes to give families the communication skills and sign language vocabulary that they need to communicate with their Deaf baby, toddler and pre-schooler.

The Deaf Services team can assess your child's needs and work with you to find the right support to meet those needs. We work closely with other agencies who support Deaf or disabled children.