National Evaluation of Support Options for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Children: Relevance to Education Services

A large study in the United Kingdom of support options for deaf and hearing-impaired children was conducted between 1998 and 2001. Findings have been reported on prevalence, demography, auditory performance, communication skills, educational achievements, and quality of life, costs including costs of compulsory education and costs incurred by families, and on the overall cost-effectiveness of cochlear implantation. These detailed reports may not be readily accessible to all those interested and this paper therefore aims to draw out and summarise the key findings from these reports. In doing so it highlights those findings which will be of particular interest to teachers of the deaf. (Contains 4 tables.)