Student Support

Dear Parents, 

When teachers identify students who may require some extra support, a standard practise I recommend is to check with parents if their child has had recent hearing and vision assessments. It's always good to be able to rule these two things out as possible factors that may be impacting behaviour, speech or learning. 

Additionally, it's also important for children to have their hearing checked prior to starting school. In Kindergarten, students learn to map sounds and letters as part of phonics instruction for literacy. It is important that they can hear and say the sounds accurately so this early instruction is as successful as possible.

We are fortunate to have access to an app called Sound Scouts which is an effective tool to screen children's hearing. It provides immediate results and next steps to follow if some hearing loss is detected, for example, further evaluation by an audiologist may be required or a visit to the GP. 

The screening takes about 8 minutes to complete and incorporates three test activities: speech-in-quiet, tone-in-noise and speech-in-noise. The speech-in-noise test is important as some children may be able to hear in quiet, but due to language, concentration or processing issues, they may struggle to hear in noise.

Sound Scouts has recently changed its subscription mode and management platform, therefore, it's now necessary for me to obtain parental permission to screen children's hearing. A permission form will be sent out via Compass to all Kindergarten families from 2024, and to individual families as required. If you have any concerns about your child's hearing and would like me to carry out the screening test, please make contact via the school office. 

For more information about Sound Scouts please visit their website or for information about the evidence of Sound Scouts please click here. 

Kind regards,

Emily Sullivan