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Educational Supports for Deaf Children in Ireland
By caroline | April 25, 2008
No two deaf children are the same: their educational experience will depend on their deafness, their personality, family background & other factors.
Parents will often have to spend time home-working with their children to complement & reinforce the child’s progress with state and school supports.
Remember to check Hearing Assistance Entitlements, the Services Map and the Schooling area of this website when researching your child’s education.
Some terminology you may meet in your child’s education plans:
V/TOD – Visiting/Teacher of the Deaf (may also teach at a specialist school)
SEN – Special Educational Needs (as defined in the EPSEN Act 2004)
SENO – Special Educational Needs Officer (co-ordinates service delivery)
SNA – Special Needs Assistant (care for the child in school if needed) Note: VTOD advises need for a SNA to the SENO, who applies to the DES for a SNA
IEP – Individual Education Plan (a NCSE publication)
Sample education supports deaf children in Ireland can access are:
* Teaching support from a visiting teacher of the deaf from soon after birth
* Speech and language therapy if required, on the HSE (waiting lists apply)
Note: If your child is attending a specialist school with speech & language therapy services, they cannot avail of the HSE’s community SLT services.
* An Individual Education Plan for their specific needs
* Home ISL tuition for children (with annual reapplication)
* Four hours’ resource teaching time per week if child has a bilateral loss
Note: Resource hours are advised by the VTOD to a SENO, who applies to the DES for the hours. The school manages the arrangement with the VTOD.
Note 2: Resource teaching can be group or individual, inside or outside the classroom and may not apply to children who are successful in mainstream.
Deaf children with extra needs may get extra hours due to dual disability
Note 3: To quantify your child’s eligibility for this, or any other services listed here, contact the Visiting Teacher Service, or your local VTOD.
Teaching support at home & in schools in Ireland is provided by:
The Visiting Teacher Service | DES information form |
The Special Education Support Service (SESS)
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE)
Topics: Hearing Matters, Irish Deaf Kids | 16 Comments »
August 18th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Hi I am a qualified secondary teacher (English,History,CSPE and Religion) and wonder if any of you would know how I could get school names that have Deaf children being mainstreamed. I am Deaf myself and very interested in teaching Deaf children in secondary schools around Dublin. Thanks. Dee
December 21st, 2009 at 10:05 am
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February 12th, 2010 at 8:51 am
[...] Educational Supports For Deaf Children in Ireland [...]
February 15th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
[...] Educational Supports for Deaf Children in Ireland [...]
March 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Hi, my son is 9 years old, has a severe hearing loss in both ears and attends mainstream school. He did quite well up to this year but at the moment he is having difficulty with Irish. The visiting teacher has suggested he drop Irish as a subject and puts the resource time into his English development. He was using some of his resource hours last year in the classroom for Irish, but the school has withdrawn this support as they feel he needs to focus on his English and maths. I am wondering if it is possible to arrange home tuition for him in Irish at this stage. He is in third class. Thanks, Marie C.
March 10th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Hi Marie C,
Many thanks for contacting IDK about this issue. We’re making enquiries on your behalf and will forward any relevant information as soon as possible.
Please also feel free to post questions on our forum, at http://forum.irishdeafkids.ie
all the best,
Caroline
March 13th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Hi Marie C,
Just to follow up on your recent enquiry.
Firstly, most deaf children at mainstream schools get an exemption from Irish by the time they move to secondary level. Unless you’ve a strong reason for his continuing Irish (eg, primary teaching or other careers), this might be the best option. Your son could then catch up on resource work and homework while his classmates had an Irish class.
This way, he gets a chance to review current work in his stronger subjects and to motivate himself, rather than lose potential homework time in those stronger subjects, to “catching” up in Irish.
It really depends on your reason/s for him to continue with Irish, and his thoughts on this.
The Department of Education incidentally doesn’t fund home tuition in Irish for deaf students. This leaves two options, (1) private home tuition or (2) negotiating resource hours with the school. Of course, if your son has an aptitude for languages, this might be the best route.
I hope this helps – this thread is being followed by parents & teachers, so feel free to add to it. A discussion on this topic is also on the IDK forum if you’d like to read what other students said.
all the best,
Caroline
March 31st, 2010 at 9:58 am
[...] question is highlighted after a comment on the IDK website, so other parents can add their points if wished. Students & parents discuss [...]
October 10th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
[...] Educational Supports For Deaf Children in Ireland [...]
February 21st, 2011 at 8:13 am
[...] Educational Supports For Deaf Children in Ireland [...]
June 30th, 2011 at 9:32 am
[...] deaf children (on a needs basis) have access to SNAs at mainstream schools, maybe with weekly resource-teaching hours approved by a Special Educational [...]
July 12th, 2011 at 11:06 am
[...] * Educational Supports For Deaf Children In Ireland [...]
July 14th, 2011 at 10:49 am
[...] a needs basis, some deaf children at mainstream schools in Ireland have access to SNAs. These SNAs work with the children in English and/or ISL, to [...]
July 21st, 2011 at 2:36 pm
[...] * Educational Supports For Deaf Children In Ireland [...]
September 21st, 2011 at 4:16 pm
[...] in this country, 90% of deaf and hard-of-hearing children are mainstream-educated, with supports (State and home back-up). To fully address the teaching supports issue for these children, a much greater awareness of [...]
February 3rd, 2012 at 7:50 pm
[...] * Educational Supports For Deaf Children In Ireland [...]