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Early intervention is widely recommended for children at risk of difficulties with speech, language and communication. Evidence for effective practice remains limited due in part to inherent difficulties in defining complex interventions and measuring change. The innovative Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system has exciting potential for early intervention and for evaluating outcomes. LENA is used widely in the USA; however, there is little to guide the introduction of this new technology in the UK. Successful implementation of new technology is predicted by its perceived acceptability and usefulness. This qualitative pilot study aimed to explore the acceptability of LENA for UK families with a young deaf child. Four families used LENA to record for one day. They received and discussed LENA feedback reports with a specialist speech and language therapist. Using qualitative methodology with a pragmatic epistemology, semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data explored using thematic analysis. Three families were positive about using LENA; they identified benefits of the feedback, suggested important factors for future use and would recommend it to other families. One family chose not to complete the recording. Key to acceptability is parental understanding of LENA’s purpose and the need for a trusted professional to facilitate interpretation and change. LENA is acceptable for some UK families with a young deaf child suggesting there is potential for successful implementation. Further study to explore LENA’s usefulness is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a significant interest in Theory of Mind (ToM), the specific groups in which it may be restricted and the opportunities which might enhance or suppress development. Previous studies have identified gaps in the literature concerning ideas for intervention and strategies which may augment the development of ToM skills. Published work suggests the use of children’s fiction to support understanding of ToM for young children. However, the current body of evidence does not critically appraise the value of picture books in developing the ToM of deaf children or provide analysis of the elements of ToM they may contain. This paper considers the opportunities held in children’s fiction and details analysis based on a developmental perspective of ToM (Westby, C. and Robinson, L., 2014. A developmental perspective for promoting theory of mind.Topics in language disorders, 34 (4), 362–382). The books analysed were chosen by educators of deaf children and researchers in the field. The opportunity for practitioners and parents to see aspects of ToM in readily accessible fiction is considered with a view to exploiting booksharing for ToM discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the debates in late nineteenth-century Britain regarding the education of deaf children revolved around communication. For many Victorians, sign language was unacceptable; many proponents of oralism attempted to ‘normalise’ the hearing impaired by replacing deaf methods of communication with spoken language and lipreading. While debates on language were raging in late nineteenth-century England, another facet of normalisation, that of occupational training, was being developed at St John’s Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the only Catholic deaf school in England. This school not only functioned to develop the Catholic faith of the deaf, but also expected to improve the social and economic status of deaf Catholics. Elementary education, and particularly occupational training, was meant to transform the deaf child into a faith-filled, respectable, working-class citizen. This essay aims at moving the normalisation debates away from language skills and towards this alternative mode of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A sign bilingual approach to the education of deaf children was first introduced in the UK in 1990. This paper reviews the growth of sign bilingual education in the UK and documents significant milestones in the development of sign bilingual policy and practice since the 1980s. This overview demonstrates how key issues in sign bilingual education have evolved and how priorities have changed over time and enables comparisons with contexts beyond the UK to be drawn. Current issues in sign bilingual education are analysed within our twenty-first century educational context in which both the advancing technology and medical understanding are providing new opportunities for deaf pupils and changing their learning and communication needs. Particular themes addressed include research into early literacy and also the role of sign language for deaf children with cochlear implants. From this analysis, new directions for sign bilingual education are suggested in terms of learning and teaching and a future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has a dual purpose. Its first purpose is to describe in some detail Sign in Education, a pilot program in the United Kingdom that integrated Deaf children and hearing children in a hearing classroom with a culturally Deaf teacher who taught the national curriculum to the pupils, both Deaf and hearing, in British Sign Language (BSL) for one afternoon a week throughout the fourteen-month-long project. Its second purpose is to explore and consider the value and advantage to the Deaf community, as well as the majority culture, of adopting a version of such a program in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study of reported good practice in deaf education and discusses some of its main findings. A postal questionnaire was used to ask a wide number of parents, teachers and others for their views on the constituents of good practice in deaf education and to recommend schools. A selection was made from the nominations and a number of case studies undertaken across a range of educational approaches and placements. The findings discussed here concern the support of deaf pupils in mainstream schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which investigated the education of deaf children in different schools and education authorities in Great Britain in 1998. Background on trends in the integration of deaf education in the country from mid-1970s through 1998; Factors related to variations in the amount of formal support in schools; Categories of staff involved in supporting the education of deaf children.

Discusses legislation and policy in Great Britain related to children with special educational needs. Guidance document on the use of reasonable force to control and restrain pupils; Provision on schools for the educationally and behaviorally disturbed children; How the British government intended to improve the literacy levels of deaf children whose first language is sign language.