It can be hard for families and teachers to recognise when a child is showing signs of deafness, explains The National Deaf Children’s Society.
Next week (4th-11th May 2026) is Deaf Awareness Week. It’s an annual event raising awareness and understanding as well as ‘celebrating British deaf culture, community and history.’ This year, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s campaign is focused on knowing and identifying signs of deafness. It explains that it can be difficult for adults to to recognise signs of deafness in children, especially if the ‘deafness is mild, affects one ear only, or happens gradually’. Additionally, some signs can be mistaken for conditions like autism or behavioural issues.
Early identification is crucial in getting a child the right support as soon as possible and to ensure accessible communication, learning and environments. It’s essential to mental health, because, as the society explains, ‘deaf people are more than twice as likely to experience mental health difficulties than hearing people’, noting how a lack of accessibility can really impact on wellbeing. Additionally, ‘78% of school-aged deaf children in the UK attend mainstream schools where they may be the only deaf child’, so a lack of representation can also add to feelings of loneliness or isolation.
Signs of deafness and hearing loss
Some of the signs that a child has hearing loss (including temporary hearing loss, such as glue ear) are:
- red ears as a baby or pulling at their ears
- watching faces and lips intently
- difficulties with reading and learning
- difficulties with speech and communication, mispronouncing words, or talking louder or softer than expected
- not responding when called or misunderstanding instructions
- wanting the volume of TV (or other devices they may be watching/listening to) louder than other people
- constantly saying “What?” or asking for speech to be repeated
- watching what others are doing before doing it themselves
- finding it difficult to follow what’s going on if there’s background noise
- appearing inattentive as if daydreaming
- struggling to concentrate, feeling tired, appearing withdrawn or frustrated.
If you feel a child in your setting is showing signs of deadness, speak to their parents so they can contact their child’s GP.
How can you get involved?
As well as knowing the signs of deafness so you can help a child get support, there are some other ways that you can recognise this week and be more inclusive and provide better accessibility for children who are deaf.
The National Deaf Children’s Society has Deaf-friendly communication guidance which includes good practice, such as asking a child what their preferred method of communication is, facing the person so they can clearly see your face and lips when you are speaking, reducing background noise and using gestures. It also shares one thing not to do, which is tell them “I’ll tell you later.” This just further isolates a child from their peers. The society instead recommends repeating as much as needed or changing up the communication method or rephrasing what you are saying to make it clearer. These are all things to bear in mind not only in the classroom but outside of it. For example, if you share a video that a student needs to watch for homework or to catch up on missed learning, does it have captions? And it if it does have captions, are they accurate or are you relying on auto-generated ones that have errors?
Another way to better support is to have a clearer understanding of deafness and hearing loss. For example, did you know that there are 4 types of deafness? (Conductive, sensorineural, mixed and central.) Some children may also have unilateral deafness (deafness in one ear). There are also 5 levels of deafness ranging from mild deafness to total deafness. These different levels which will impact on what a child can hear and the level and type of support they need.
- Mild deafness (21 to 40db) – can hear someone speaking to them in a quiet room without hearing devices. May find it hard to hear when there is lots of noise, the person speaking is far away or is whispering.
- Moderate deafness (41 to 70db) – Can hear a baby’s cry or someone speaking to them in a quiet room without hearing devices. Like with mild deafness, they fill find it harder to hear with lots of noise or someone speaking very quietly or from further away.
- Severe deafness (71 to 95db) – Cannot hear someone speaking to them without hearing devices. May hear loud songs like a dog barking or drums.
- Profound deafness (95db) – Cannot hearing someone talking to them without hearing devices, may hear or feel some very loud sounds like a lorries passing.
- Total deafness – No hearing at all even when using hearing devices. They may feel very loud sounds like the vibration of bass through a speaker. Total deafness occurs in a small number of children and young people.
It’s also useful to know about different methods of communication. The most common type of communication in UK education settings is spoken language only (89%) with 2% using British or Irish Sign language, 6% using sign language alongside a spoken language and 4% using other combinations or approaches. See this guidance to gain an understanding of spoken language.
Learn more about Deaf Awareness Week and other ways you can get involved.
References
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Deaf Awareness Week’. Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/deaf-awareness-week (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Deaf Statistics’. Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/about-us/news-and-media/deaf-statistics (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Deafness and your emotional health and wellbeing’. Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/all-advice-and-support-topics/deafness-and-your-emotional-health-and-wellbeing (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Signs of deafness and hearing loss’. Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/all-advice-and-support-topics/causes-types-and-signs-deafness/signs-deafness-and-hearing-loss (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Deaf-friendly communication guidance.’ Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/all-advice-and-support-topics/deaf-awareness/deaf-friendly-communication-guidance (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘What is deafness and hearing loss?’ Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/all-advice-and-support-topics/causes-types-and-signs-deafness/what-deafness-and-hearing-loss (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
- National Deaf Children’s Society (2026) ‘Levels of deafness and hearing loss’. Available at: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/all-advice-and-support-topics/causes-types-and-signs-deafness/levels-deafness-and-hearing-loss (Accessed: 01 May 2026)
