The Hearing Impairment Service

• Work in partnership with families offering support and information regarding hearing difficulties.
• Provide information, advice and training to college, school and nursery staff.
• Provide specialist teaching and support to children with a hearing impairment.
• Assess functional hearing.
• Support and advise on the use of specialist equipment e.g. hearing aids, cochlear implants and FM radio systems.
• Develop listening and language skills.
• Give advice on the modification of teaching materials and access arrangements for examinations.
• Contribute to individual communication programmes
• Liaise with other professionals in Social Care, Audiologists at the Hearing Centre, ENT Consultants, Speech and Language Therapists and Educational Psychologists and Voluntary organisations.

Babies, children and students 0-16 years (or to 19 by arrangement) with a diagnosed hearing impairment, their families and carers who live in the Dudley Borough or attend Dudley schools.

Support is offered at home, Nursery or Early Years Setting, Playgroup, School or College (by arrangement).

Support is allocated according to the National Sensory Inclusion Partnership (NatSIP) visiting criteria.

We have an open referral system.  Referrals can be made my parents/carers, school staff, nursery/early years settings, speech and language therapists, ENT consultants, school health advisors and hearing centres. 

If you think your child may have a hearing problem: 

Preschool children - contact The Hearing Centre 01384 321266 and ask for a hearing test appointment.

School age children - ask the school to make an appointment for a hearing test with your school health advisor. 

• Families of babies who are diagnosed with a permanent hearing loss through the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme will be contacted within 24 hours of the referral from Audiology.
• For other referrals, on receipt of a signed referral form you will be contacted by a Teacher of the Deaf within one week for a new hearing aid wearer or four weeks for a functional assessment.

For further information please contact:

The Ashwood Park Resource Base for the deaf is a primary school in Dudley with enhanced provision for deaf children with severe or profound hearing.  This provision forms part of the Local Offer for hearing impaired pupils.

The Listen and Learn Centre (LLC) is enhanced provision for deaf pupils with severe or profound hearing loss in secondary school aged 11-16. We support pupils with a severe or profound hearing loss. Pupils are fully included in Crestwood School, but benefit from enhanced classroom communication support and individual tutorial sessions with teachers of the deaf. This provision forms part of the Local Offer for hearing impaired students.

We have teachers of the deaf and a small team of specialist teaching assistants who support and give access to mainstream lessons. One to one sessions in the LLC support language development, listening skills and enhance access to the school curriculum.

The LLC has a large teaching room, an audiology and speech therapy room and an office which gives additional teaching space. One of our teachers is a qualified educational audiologist. We work closely with speech and language therapists and our deaf support worker, who teaches British Sign Language after school.

The LLC offers oral and total communications modes, agreed with pupils and parents through our review process. Teachers of the deaf work closely with multiple agencies including NHS audiology, Midland Hearing Implant programme and parents to ensure each student has the best listening experience with the latest hearing technologies.

How do you get a referral?

All pupils have and Education Health and Care plan (EHCP) and can be admitted to the provision following statutory assessment or an annual review of the EHCP.

Age range: 11-16 years

Further information:
The Crestwood School, Bromley Lane, Kingswinford, DY6 8QG
01384 686494