The difference in exam results will hopefully change

Last week I conducted my interview with Karen Cruicks, the lead advisor teacher for hearing impediment in the South of England.

I found it to be a very eye opening experience where I learned a lot of different things. I wanted to explore the research I undertook which said that deaf students' GCSE grades were, on average, two grades lower than hearing students and why this was the case.

Karen explained that previously children weren't screened as deaf until the age of 2-3 which caused a huge setback in those children learning language because the key time for children to learn a language is from the age of 0-3 and a half. But this is changing, now children are being screened at three weeks old so they can get the support they need before they go into education. This means that hopefully in the future this difference in exam results will change and hearing students won't be at a disadvantage in learning their language.

Also during the interview I asked Karen the difference between a specialist deaf school compared to a state school. She explained that some specialist deaf schools will be where children stay for a week and return home at the weekends, these schools are also smaller than state schools. They are beneficial as they give specialist support, however they could put the child at a disadvantage as they haven't been socialising with hearing students. This means that when they eventually go to university or into the workplace they are less experienced working with hearing peers compared to deaf students who went to a state school. This really interested me to find out and was something I didn't think about. Here is a snippet of some of the disadvantages of sending your child to a specialist deaf school.

Karen showed me some of her equipment

At the end of the interview Karen showed me some of the equipment and programmes she uses and takes into schools to either train the teachers or to help deaf students. She explained to me the difference between having a hearing aid compared to a cochlear implant. The hearing aid is simply there just to amplify sound whereas the cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that creates electric signals in the auditory nerve. Karen let me hear what it sounded like having a hearing aid compared to a cochlear implant using the device shown in the photo.

This device let me hear what it sounds like to be deaf and have a hearing aid.

This was so interesting to experience and helped me gain insight in to the possible sounds I could create for my soundscape at the beginning of my podcast. She also showed me the spectrum of the different sounds deaf people can hear/not hear and a video explaining how a cochlear implant works. The interview was a huge success and really helped me develop some extra research into what I could include in my podcast and helped me delve deeper into topics I wouldn't have even thought to research.

Some of the equipment Karen uses in state schools