Deaf Education Through Listening & Talking (DELTA)
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£306,650
Funding round
DELTA is a charity that supports parents who want their profoundly deaf children to attain their full potential and participate in the hearing world by learning to listen and talk. We were set up in 1980. We use a communication approach known as the Natural Aural Approach.
With the grant from the Parenting Fund we are going to develop our support further by arranging a structured, yearly programme, focussing on the different needs of parents at different stages with their children, i.e. when their children are under 5 years, 5-10 years old and 10 years and older.
Currently, we hold two successful Summer Schools, one in the North of England and the other in the South to enable families, who have a deaf child, to begin to learn about the Natural Aural Approach. Teams of qualified volunteers look after the deaf children and their hearing brothers and sisters, leaving their parents free to learn from experts from within the fields of audiology, children's language development, play, parenting and educational legislation how to help their deaf child learn to listen and talk.
With the Parenting Fund DELTA will:
- increase parenting provision by arranging additional workshops and meetings through an annual timetable of meetings and events
- share good practice by buying in teacher time rather than relying on volunteer time
- increase provision and access to information, for those unable to attend meetings, by developing additional written materials.
The overall intention is to provide structured, rather than occasional, support, thereby increasing the confidence and ability of the parents in helping their deaf children to learn to listen and talk in the early stages and in coping with the various challenges and opportunities of the subsequent years.