Deaf children face several problems, primarily stemming from the fact that it is extremely hard for them to understand spoken language. Communication can be very difficult for the 90% of deaf children born to hearing parents; research reports state that it is estimated that 81% of parents with a deaf child never learn to communicate with their child. This means that these deaf children are effectively excluded from family life. In addition, many never gain enough understanding of English to become fully literate, greatly reducing their ability to achieve at school and beyond. A deaf person is 2½ times more likely to be unemployed than a hearing person and approximately a third of deaf adults rely on government benefits. Current strategies to communicate with deaf babies are usually that either the whole family should learn a new language, British Sign Language (BSL), which takes years and is a completely different language from English - or that families rely on hearing aids or cochlear implants to solve the problem. However there is clear research evidence which shows that neither approach is working effectively for the majority of deaf children. A Speech & Language Therapist with 8 years experience of working with deaf children has told us: 'Very few of our secondary age students manage to progress beyond a reading age of 8 years and the majority have a reading age of 7 years. ... Perhaps even more worrying than this is the psychological effect that impoverished communication at home has on many of our students. ... Many of our students suffer high levels of frustration with low self-esteem and low levels of emotional literacy, despite coming from loving, caring families.'
