Beatrice's family spent a week at The Elizabeth Foundation learning from experts, connecting with other parents, and gaining confidence for the journey ahead: "At the end of July, we had the great privilege to attend The Elizabeth Foundation’s Summer Programme. The Elizabeth Foundation (TEF) is a charity based near Portsmouth which works with deaf pre-school children. As well as running baby and toddler sessions and a pre-school, every year they run a week-long programme for whole families. During the week, deaf 3 to 5 year olds attend pre-school while parents have educational sessions and older siblings have their own fun. I had heard about the programme by word of mouth and thought it would be good for all 3 of us to have an intensive week of ‘deaf stuff’. On Monday, we drove from our local apartment and arrived with trepidation. Will was not particularly looking forward to a week of ‘school’, and we were both worried how Beatrice would settle with strangers. It turns out no concerns were necessary! We had to get Beatrice’s attention to say goodbye as she checked out the play kitchen with a member of the friendly staff. At the end of the first day, she asked to come again tomorrow, which bowled me over! The 8 children in the pre-school seemed to have a great time, and on the Friday, we were allowed to spend half an hour watching them behind one-way glass. With 3 adults to 8 children, and a structured, focused and repetitive learning style, TEF's pre-school could not be more different to Beatrice’s mainstream one! Julie, the charismatic and experienced chief executive, told us that they encourage the children who attend their term-time pre-school to attend another setting as well so that they can experience the noise and chaos of the real world! The parent education sessions were incredibly interesting. We had talks from an educational psychologist (EP), a speech and language therapist (SaLT), 2 different Teachers of the Deaf (ToD), 3 inspirational deaf young adults, 2 parents of deaf children who had just finished Reception, and a parent of a deaf young adult. We all learned so much and came home with a great list of things to try and changes to make, at home or at pre-school or when getting ready for starting Reception. We were encouraged to go slowly and not panic so that we could take it all in and be realistic! Beatrice also had individual sessions with an EP, SaLT and ToD, and we will receive written reports from them. We had the benefit of them working together so they could give us a holistic view of Beatrice’s strengths and areas to work on. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet 7 other sets of loving, committed, anxious, determined parents. Julie deliberately gave us plenty of opportunity to chat, moan and share experiences and tips. We are spread across the UK but hope to meet up again! Part of me is sad that most of TEF’s work is necessarily limited to the local area. Their buildings host paediatric audiology for the local hospital, and when families receive the often shocking news that their child is deaf, Julie pops in and has a chat. I would have been so grateful for that kindness after Beatrice’s initial ABR, feeling adrift with a deaf newborn. I envy the families that can go weekly to TEF with their little ones – but not quite enough for us to move to Portsmouth!" Our bloggers share their stories and experiences to help other families, so please be kind and respectful when commenting 💜 (fb)

Deaf awareness starts with understanding that deaf people are all unique and will have their own journey with deafness. We’ve created free deaf awareness resources that you can share with your child’s teacher and school – including posters, postcards, quizzes and videos to help pupils and teachers better understand deafness. Small changes in the classroom can mean a big difference for your deaf child’s confidence and happiness 💜 ✨ Share this post with your child’s school and other parents. 👉 Explore all our free resources here: https://go.ndcs.org.uk/fbbacktoschooldeafawareness (fb)