I M P A C T R E P O R T S EPT J U L Y 2015

Transcription

1 I M P A C T R E P O R T S EPT J U L Y 2015 The Elizabeth Foundation Impact Report Academic Year 2014/2015 Our history The Elizabeth Foundation is a registered charity which was founded in 1981 by Shirley Metherell, MBE and David Metherell, MBE, whose daughter, Elizabeth, was born profoundly deaf. Inspired by the John Tracey Clinic in Los Angeles, and determined to do all they could to support their daughter s development, Shirley and David set up and developed The Elizabeth Foundation. Since then we have helped hundreds of deaf children develop their listening and spoken language skills. What we do At The Elizabeth Foundation, we facilitate the early diagnosis for babies and preschool children with all degrees of deafness and provide comprehensive education and support services for them and their families. By doing so, we enable our children to develop good listening skills, natural speech, confidence and selfesteem and give parents the confidence and knowledge to make informed decisions on behalf of their child. We provide: Baby, toddler, and pre-school educational programmes delivered at our purpose-built Family Centre in Portsmouth Parent education and support Tailored individual speech and language therapy A support service for parents who are unable to travel to our Family Centre We have a wide geographical reach, with children from nine counties attending our Family Centre on a weekly basis. We also have a special partnership with the children s audiology team at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which is based within our centre in Portsmouth All children attending our Family Centre benefit from: Small class sizes with a maximum of eight children Specialist staff, including Teachers of the Deaf, Specialist Speech and Language Therapy, and Learning Support Assistants Acoustically-treated classrooms with soundfield systems throughout In-depth knowledge of each child s individual hearing loss, their hearing technology, and the implications for their cognitive, social-emotional, and communication development Page 1

2 Each child s provision and progress is regularly monitored, assessed, reviewed and targeted. Diagnosis and beyond Each year over 12,000 newborn babies are screened by the Portsmouth Hospital Trust s children s audiology team, which operates from our premises. Of these around 12 (I in a 1,000) will be diagnosed with a significant hearing loss. Due to our close working relationship, we can be on hand at the point of diagnosis to support the whole family, and when they are ready introduce them into our baby programme where they can meet other families in the same situation. When our son was diagnosed it was so scary and sad, but The Elizabeth Foundation has been a rock for me and my family. The support, both emotionally (how to cope with a child being diagnosed with a hearing loss) and practically (how to help a child with a hearing loss) is amazing. Without The Elizabeth Foundation I am not sure how I would have coped with dealing with my own emotions and fears and helping my daughter, but with their help I m feeling confident about her future. Our Supporters We rely on voluntary donations to continue our work, we would like to thank all of our supporters for their invaluable contributions throughout the year. Babies Providing excellent support to parents from the point of diagnosis We provided weekly sessions of specialist educational support to 24 babies, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 18 months old. Parents attend this group along with their babies, and this enables the parents to pick up tips and ideas for how to support their baby s development at home and also start developing friendships with other parents. The sessions take place in our purpose-built Baby Unit. Each week we provide one-to-one support to each parent and child, alongside the main group session. Page 2

3 We started at The Elizabeth Foundation when our son was three months old. I remember feeling overwhelmed but felt so much support straight away. It was all a bit of a blur at the start, but I knew what a special place we had found straight away. What impact we had. The parents of babies told us that, as a result of coming to our sessions: Their baby s listening skills had improved Their baby is noticing and responding to more sounds Their baby understands more words Their baby is happier to wear their hearing technology (hearing aids or cochlear implants) Toddlers As children develop so too does our programme ensuring that children with hearing loss are given the support to learn key skills We provided weekly sessions of specialist educational support to 24 toddlers. As with the baby group, parents also attend this session with their children, in addition, each toddler is given a regular one-to-one speech and language therapy session by a specialist Speech & Language Therapist, alongside the main group session. The staff team are amazing. We enjoyed everything about the programme - loved the classes and learned so much It helps having staff that have deaf children themselves. They completely understand the situation we are in What impact we had... Parents of toddlers felt that, as a result of attending The Elizabeth Foundation, their child has a greater awareness and understanding of hearing loss (e.g. they understand that they need to wear their hearing aids/cochlear implants because they help them to hear). Also, parents felt that, as a result of attending The Elizabeth Foundation: Their child s listening skills have improved Their child understands more words Their child is happier and less frustrated Their child is more self-confident Page 3

4 Preschool To ensure children and families are ready for the next step beyond The Elizabeth Foundation We provided weekly sessions of specialist educational support to 31 preschool children. A total of 15 of these children graduated from our services to move on to full-time education. Each child was given a weekly individual speech and language therapy session in addition to the main group session. In our pre-school the children attend without their parents, whilst their parents can relax in our purpose-built parent s lounge. I always feel a sense of belonging somebody always being there for you. It is such a special place. Thank-you for all you do your kindness, support and care mean so much to me! What impact we had In a recent survey, all parents of pre-school children felt that their child s understanding of, and use of, spoken language had improved as a result of attending The Elizabeth Foundation. This included all of the following: Their child s listening skills had improved and/or they are noticing more sounds Their child understood more sounds Their child is using their voice more and/or is saying more words Their child s words are easier to understand All the parents also felt that their child is more self-confident as a result of attending The Elizabeth Foundation. Speech and Language Therapy Our dedicated Speech and Language Therapist provided excellent one to one support to our children We provided weekly individual speech and language therapy sessions to toddlers and pre-schoolers, with a total of 49 children benefitting from this specialist service. The support has been invaluable and the most beneficial service we have received/ accessed to help and guide us to deal with my son s hearing loss. Finding out about The Elizabeth Foundation has changed our lives for the best Page 4

5 Educating and Supporting Families: at our Family Centre We work closely with the parents and families of all the children who attend our Family Centre, offering support, advice, guidance and encouragement, right from the point of diagnosis until their child is ready to begin school. Our close working relationship with the children s audiology team at Portsmouth Hospital s NHS Trust means that we can be on hand at the point of diagnosis to offer support. Following on from this, our parents can access individual support and advice on an ongoing basis, as and when it is needed, from our experienced staff, experts in deaf children s education. We also run structured education sessions for parents in our Baby and Toddler Groups, supplemented with handouts so the parents can practice the learning activities at home. We also provide support for parents on Education Health Care Plans. During the year we also arranged for a specialist speaker to talk to our parents about how to overcome sleep issues (which is a common issue amongst deaf children). In addition we provide private space for our parents to get together in a comfortable, safe and relaxed environment whilst their child attends our preschool sessions. This further supports the parents and siblings to form peer relationships with others attending The Elizabeth Foundation. What impact we had. In a recent survey, all the parents who responded felt that they and/or their families had benefited from attending The Elizabeth Foundation, over and above the benefits to their deaf child. As a result of attending The Elizabeth Foundation: All parents felt more confident about raising a deaf child All parents felt more confident about advocating on behalf of their deaf child and their needs in the future 94% of parents felt that they have a greater understanding of hearing impairment and related issues, and: Page 5

6 also felt more confident about supporting their child's speech and language development at home All of our current parents would recommend The Elizabeth Foundation to other parents of deaf children. The Elizabeth Foundation has helped our family to understand a world that was new to us. We now have a skill-set suited to teaching our daughter and helping her to progress Without the support of The Elizabeth Foundation I would have really struggled emotionally and practically to support my daughter. The help we have received enables me to continue supporting her at home Educating and supporting families: at home Providing support to parents wherever they live we also provide a remote support service to reach families who are unable to attend our Family Centre. We provide a comprehensive, interactive programme of support and education, through which we teach families how to support the development of their deaf child s speech, listening and language skills at home. Each family has regular contact with an experienced Teacher of the Deaf who guides them through the process. Over the year, there were 70 families actively using this service, including 10 new families who joined us during the year. The new families were based across the UK and beyond, including families in Pakistan and Nigeria. There are great ideas for each parent! One can select games, enrich one s ideas and use a variety of games with their child ; I find the lessons and reporting very helpful indeed Unilateral and conductive hearing loss we established a new monthly support group helping children who have a significant hearing loss but do not require hearing aids. We also run services for children with unilateral or chronic conductive hearing loss. In both cases children often do not receive the specialist support they would benefit from for listening and spoken language development during their early years. In response to this our new monthly group has supported eight babies and four preschool children and their families. Complex needs we established a service for children with complex needs in addition to hearing loss to address a significant gap in provision. We have also supported two children with complex needs, including significant hearing loss. To support these children and their families most effectively we have provided tailored, specialist support to help develop the children s listening and early language skills. Page 6