Working with Deaf Children and Young People: A Guide for Practitioners

by Sarah Beazley, Judy Halden

Overview

This book highlights the wide impact of deafness on many aspects of communication for deaf children and young people, and those around them. It explores input, semantics, grammar, and speech, and how you as a practitioner can apply this knowledge in different contexts, including for early years support.

Each chapter considers the impact of deafness on key communication components and provides you with opportunities to reflect on and extend knowledge and practice in each area. A range of strategies and activities are presented that can enhance the support you offer.

Key features include:

• a framework to guide you to use your knowledge and the available resources to maximum effect with deaf children and young people
• clear explanations throughout built on wide research evidence to enable you to employ approaches that will make a difference
• a set of adaptable checklists to provide efficient assessment to help planning
• a focus on supporting communicative independence in collaboration with each deaf child and young person

Written in an accessible, engaging format, this book equips practitioners with a range of tools to support the development of communicative independence and includes reflective questions to consolidate knowledge. It is a must-read for any practitioner working with deaf children and young people and their families.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040323588
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2025
Series:	Working With
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Sarah Beazley is a specialist speech and language therapist (SLT) who has worked with deaf people since 1983 and as a lecturer on undergraduate and postgraduate professional courses. She has written several publications in the area of deafness and disability and is a visiting scholar at the University of Edinburgh.

Judy Halden was dual qualified as an SLT and a teacher for deaf children. She worked with deaf people from 1978, setting up and running specialist speech and language services for deaf children and for both deaf and deafened adults. She was an adviser, lecturer, and supervisor on the Hertfordshire University course for teachers of deaf children, as well as an honorary research associate and lecturer at University College London’s Department of Psychology and Language Sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Input

Chapter 3: Auditory access to sound

Chapter 4: Conversational skills: discourse and pragmatics

Chapter 5: Linking grammar and semantics to communicative independence

Chapter 6: Intelligibility: listeners, watchers, and phonetics

Chapter 7: Some final words

Chapter 8: Resources

Index

Editorial Reviews

This expertly crafted practitioner guide draws on extensive experience, knowledge, and research offering both practical and theoretical insights into working with deaf children and young people. Judy and Sarah’s expertise informs every chapter, reinforcing core principles while introducing fresh perspectives that will enhance and strengthen your professional practice.”

Ruth Merritt, Highly Specialist speech and language therapist with deaf people, Independent practitioner

“This book is an accessible and in-depth resource for speech and language therapists and teachers of deaf children. It takes a broad approach to the development of languages, which is necessary given the widely divergent experiences of deaf babies, children and young people. The flexibility and creativity in the approaches will provide practitioners with confidence in their work. I highly recommend it.”

Rachel O’Neill, Senior Lecturer in deaf education, University of Edinburgh

From the Publisher