Children affected by hearing loss falling through the cracks
Children affected by hearing loss in the classroom and APD children falling through the cracks
Media release –
Thursday, 2 March 2017 - AM
HEARING WEEK – 26 February
to 4 March
Education and children with hearing
loss
Education access: Captioning
Captioning is a vital
tool that enables people who are deaf and hard of hearing to
follow and understand broadcast programmes. In other
countries, including the UK, US, Australia and France,
captioning is legislatively mandated.
Funding from the New Zealand Government through New Zealand on Air provides captioning on approximately 24% of new to air content or approximately 50% when repeats are included.
Ms. Kate Whale, President of New Zealand Federation for Deaf Children says “Captioning is hugely important, not only for the mainstream programmes but children’s programmes. If the programmes are without captions our children don’t feel part of the family, they feel isolated and can’t join experience life on an equal basis with their brothers and sisters.
In schools teachers use videos more and more
frequently and if they don’t have captioning then the
messages do not come across. The lack of video captioning in
schools limits our children’s ability to succeed, as they
are unable to learn.”
Education Access: Remote
Microphone Hearing Aids
Last night I had parent interview
at my girls’ intermediate school. I was quite surprised to
see a classroom with 120 students. This is the new
“innovative learning education” suggested by Ministry of
Education.
At first glance, I was impressed with the
lay-out and modern ways of teaching, but standing at the
back of the classroom, I couldn’t hear the teacher
presenting his power point to parents. This made me think.
How will children with hearing loss fare in this
situation?
Unless they have remote microphone hearing
aids this could become a frustrating and failure laden
learning experience for children.
Parents of children
with Auditory Processing Disorder are often told their
children need to try harder, concentrate better, and listen
in class. For many, it is not until they are diagnosed with
Auditory Processing Disorder that these education access
issues can be dealt with appropriately. In “Listen Hear!
New Zealand” Auditory Processing Disorder is identified
as a type of hearing loss.
With the appropriate supports
children with Auditory Processing Disorder can fully
participate in their classroom learning activities and
succeed with learning and the Ministry of Education is the
Government access point for cost-free remote microphone
hearing aids for children to use. Remote Microphone Hearing
Aids are not funded for children with Auditory Processing
Disorder by any other Government agency.
As reported in the Saphere Report in 2014, in a population of 776,815 school children in New Zealand there is predicted to be an APD occurrence rate of 5 – 15%. This means there are at least 38,841 children who have APD. But the Ministry of Education provided less that 30 remote microphone hearing aids, nationwide to children with Auditory Processing Disorder in 2015 and over 4 years, from 2011 to 2015 the Ministry of Education funded 133 Remote Microphone Hearing Aids nationwide!
Ms. Leonie Wilson, President, Hear for Families which is a member organisation of The National Foundation for the Deaf, commented “Often children who are loud and disruptive are labelled naughty, out of control or even ADHD, but maybe there is more to this story. Once diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder many people feel relieved to know what they have is real and that there are many things that can be done to help them, including trialling remote microphone hearing aids, and other treatment and management options” .
If you think these issues affects you or a family member do contact “Hear for Families” as they are working to improve the lives and futures for people living with Auditory Processing Disorder.
ends