Improving participation of children and young people in audiology
Posted December 26, 2015
on:- In: audiologist | children | deaf | NHS | rights | special educational needs
- 3 Comments
Updated February 2019
We know that children children and teenagers are the experts in their own lives and have the right to be meaningfully involved in all decisions that affect them. The ‘right to participate’ is one of the guiding principles enshrined within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and government policy has long emphasised the importance of listening to, as well as the involving children, young people and their parents in shaping the services they receive, for example Aiming High for Disabled Children (HM Treasury & DfES, 2007), You’re Welcome (DH, 2007), and the Children and Families Act (2014).
In practice many of us find this very challenging in our day-to-day practice. Participation is not fully embedded in the culture of the NHS and in particular in services for disabled children, those with delayed communication skills or communication impairments, and deaf children and young people who primarily use other languages to ourselves, such as BSL users.
‘Participation’ could mean everything from participating more effectively in their appointments, taking greater responsibility for asking for and responding to information, being able to advocate for and engage with their own care, to working with them to develop services that more closely meet their needs.
I have put together a list of useful resources to support audiologists and other health professionals in improving participation of deaf children and young people in audiology and other health settings:
Information for children and young people for resources developed for deaf children and young people, producing your own information for deaf children and young people, and information for children and young people on their rights when using NHS services
Communicating and decision making with deaf children and young people for resources on improving communication
Young peoples views of the services they receive and involvement of children and young people for resources on their views
3 Responses to "Improving participation of children and young people in audiology"

That’s really cool that these audiologist encourage participation. I’m a firm believer that the therapy will work best if you approach it with an open mind. I’ll have to make sure everyone is in the right mind when they go into the audiologist. Thanks for the info!

April 21, 2016 at 5:04 pm
I see a stuffed animal-mouse with hearing aids that I’d like to purchase but I can’t find where to do that. Any suggestions?
Norine Luongo
July 20, 2016 at 7:41 am
I think you’ve seen Otto – he was a mascot of Oticon – one of the hearing aid manufacturers. Sadly I don’t think he’s made any longer. Have a look at this post for further ideas https://kidsaudiologist.info/2011/08/07/hello-world/ and also check out the #ToyLikeMe Diff:ability campaign on Facebook and Twitter.