SEND advice and guidance

Mild sensori-neural hearing loss

A sensori-neural hearing loss is a permanent loss caused by damage to part of the cochlear or inner ear. A hearing loss is classified as mild when the hearing in the better ear is between 20-40dB. if the child has this type of hearing loss in both ears it is referred to as both ears it is referred to as bi-lateral.

What are the implications?

  • The child or young person may have difficulty hearing soft consonant sounds, e.g. sh, s, f, t, p and word endings. Word endings are information carriers in speech, e.g. tense markers, plurals and possessives. Function words such as it, is, at, may also be missed. This could impact upon progress in phonics, spelling, writing and it may also affect speech clarity.
  • The child or young person is likely to have much greater difficulty hearing against background noise or hearing effectively over a distance. This may impact upon their ability to hear in a busy classroom, a dinner hall, playground and outside on trips and sports activities.
  • The child or young person may have difficulty hearing what others say during class discussion, group activities and talk partners.
  • The child or young person may get more tired.

Provided parents and staff are aware of the following strategies, educational progress and language development are not normally significantly affected.

Strategies

  • Sit child or young person near the front and slightly to the side, away from sources of noise such as heaters, computers, overhead projectors, fans and adjoining classrooms.
  • Relay contributions made by others during class discussion.
  • Use visual aids, especially in phonics and when introducing new vocabulary.
  • Teach phonics in a quiet environment.
  • Avoid whispering strategies.
  • Be aware that the light needs to be on the speaker’s face so avoid standing in front of sources of light such as windows.
  • In secondary schools provide written instructions for homework.
  • Consider improving acoustics by adding soft furnishings.
  • Reduce external noise by shutting doors and closing windows.
  • Consider trying a ‘Soundfield System’.

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For further information or training, please contact your Teacher of the Deaf.

Useful links

National Deaf Children’s Society: Mild hearing loss | National Deaf Children’s Society (ndcs.org.uk)