All About Deafness
Find out about deafness from parents with a lived experience, young working adults and our Parent Mentors. Plus we have provided summaries, with helpful links of the subjects parents told us were important to them.
Source: DCA
If your child has recently been diagnosed as being deaf or hard of hearing, you’ll hear a lot of new terminology that may sound confusing and even a little intimidating. It helps to understand a bit more about hearing loss and this section of Flying Colours covers all sorts of information about deafness - from stories from parents with lived experiences, Q and As from people in the workplace and check out the subject summaries with helpful hints and links.
Depending on which part of the hearing system is affected, hearing loss is classed as either conductive, sensorineural, or mixed; mild, moderate, severe or profound; unilateral or bilateral.
In Australia, three to six children in every thousand have some degree of hearing loss.
Discovering your infant or young child is deaf or hard of hearing can understandably be difficult and perhaps overwhelming. The most important thing you can do is continue loving your child and providing the care and nurture they need.
We heard from close to 350 parents who told us what they wanted to know more about, what links and hints would help them as they navigate every day.
Approximately 250–400 children born each year have significant permanent hearing loss in both ears. Permanent hearing loss is where the hearing threshold (or hearing level) is more than 40dB and where this threshold is permanent.
Articles
Building Bridges in regional and rural pre and primary school communities.
We are committed to supporting pre and primary school communities with deaf-friendly resources. We aim to build inclusion in rural and regional communities. We would love to hear from you about this!
My story, my career path - Jamie Hannah Lane
Jamie works as an employment consultant with Sign For Work at Deaf Children Australia. Jamie shares her experience growing up to inspire the new generation of deaf or hard of hearing young people to achieve their goals.
Karla - My son, our Story
Karla shares her family's story about navigating the early days of diagnosis and how valuable connecting with other parents raising a deaf or hard of hearing child was to their unique journey.
Research
- Featured resource
What do child psychologists do?
Psychologists are university-qualified health professionals trained to support people with their thoughts, feelings, behaviours and learning.
What do early intervention specialists do?
Early intervention aims to give your child the best possible start in life by supporting them to develop vital communication skills. It should start as soon as possible after your child has been diagnosed with a hearing issue.
What does a speech pathologist do?
Speech pathologists (also sometimes called ‘speech-language pathologists’) are university-qualified allied health professionals who work with people experiencing communication difficulties.
What are special needs schools?
Australia has both government and independent specialist schools for children with complex educational needs, including children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
