Community and Network
If you have a child with hearing loss or a hearing impairment, you will deal with and receive advice from several different professionals.
These will include, but are not limited to, an audiologist, ENT (ear, nose and throat) consultant, Teacher of the Deaf (ToD), special educational needs coordinator (SENCO), teaching assistant, communication support worker and speech and language therapist. This can be overwhelming.
The Earsay community enjoy all sorts of events
Meeting other families with deaf or hard of hearing children can be invaluable when seeking practical advice from others who have or have had a deaf or hard of hearing child or young adult as part of their family. When you feel the time is right, you may want to:
Each hard of hearing child, young adult and their family will follow their own unique journey.
- join Earsay
- attend our events to meet up with other families
- meet with the professionals who support Jersey's deaf and hard of hearing children, young adults and their families
- read about other families' experiences of having a child with hearing loss
Earsay organises varied events to give the children, young adults and their families the opportunity to meet in a welcoming and fun environment. Different events are organised to suit all age ranges.
Within Deaf Awareness Week (generally the first week of May) we often get involved with community events, and partner with local schools to promote awareness.
Earsay has a Christmas Signing Choir, made up of deaf and hearing children and adults, which performs in December around Jersey, bringing festive cheer and showing BSL to the public.
Earsay also works with the various professionals, including formal meetings of the Jersey dDeaf Partnership Board and Jersey CHSWG (Childrens’ Hearing Services Working Group).
The Jersey dDeaf Partnership Board was established in March 2006 and is a forum where service users and service providers come together to discuss issues and support for deaf, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing people in Jersey
- The main focus of the Jersey CHSWG is to work to develop and improve services delivered to deaf and hard of hearing children and young people aged 0-19 years and their families.
- The Jersey CHSWG provides a multi-agency forum for discussion, information sharing and joint working between parents and practitioners from Education, Health and Social Care who work in, or are associated with the delivery of services for all deaf children and young people.
- Each hard of hearing child, young adult and their family members will follow their own unique journey. However, it has proven extremely beneficial to members (both parents and children) to hear about other’s experiences and share their own.
