Family of girl with Down's Syndrome and hearing loss calling for more support for deaf children

• The mother of a deaf girl from Derby is backing a campaign calling on the Government to increase support for deaf children under the age of five.

A family from Derby whose daughter was born with Down's Syndrome and hearing loss, say the lack of support she received at school growing up is having a long-term impact on her development.

Holly Allan, who's now 14, was diagnosed with conductive hearing loss when she was two months old.

She had to wear hearing aids on a soft band as a child - as she wasn't old enough for bone anchored hearing aids surgery.

Her mother, Alison, feels she’s been badly let down by her education and school who she says didn’t put in place appropriate conditions to support Holly through her early years learning and it’s still having a long term impact on her years on.

Holly's family are backing a new campaign called Every Moment Counts, which is calling on the Government to take urgent action to increase support for deaf children under the age of 5. 

New figures show the number of teachers of deaf children is declining at a rapid rate, while many deaf children under the age of 5 are not reaching important development milestones.

Two-thirds of deaf children in England finish reception class without reaching expected development milestones including language development, social skills and communication.

The National Deaf Children’s Society says it's even more concerned by the wider impact of deaf children’s education with the number of qualified teachers of the Deaf declining considerably, with one in five post lost since 2011.

Holly’s family are now speaking out in support of the new ‘Every Moment Counts’ campaign calling on the government to train and employ an extra 200 teachers for deaf children.

A Government spokesperson said:

“We want all children and young people, including those who are deaf or have a hearing impairment, to receive the support they need to succeed in their education.

“Our recently published special educational needs and disabilities improvement plan sets out how we will do this, through earlier intervention, better workforce training, and national standards setting out the support that should be provided across early years, mainstream and special education.”