English at KS1 and hearing impairment

The National Curriculum for English is statutory in all maintained, mainstream schools up to and including key stage 4. An appropriate version of the curriculum is used in maintained special schools. Key Stage 1 (KS1) covers years 1-2, children aged 5-7 years.

Hearing impairment has a similar impact throughout the key stages. Read the information on challenges faced by hearing impaired children across the curriculum and at all levels, plus the suggestions for inclusion.

At KS1 there is the challenge of speaking with clear diction and appropriate intonation, choosing words with precision and taking into account the needs of the listener. The challenges of listening focus on sustaining concentration, making relevant comments and listening to what others contribute. They also need to be able to identify and respond to sound patterns in language.

You can:

• Encourage drama as a way of encouraging all children to speak in a clear and confident way, and also to have fun with stories: for example acting out the characters in a chapter from a favourite story such as Roald Dahl’s The Twits or Matilda.
• Use a ‘checklist’ of things to refer to, which will support the pupil in reinforcing what they need to do. For example when teaching the structure of stories, try making a checklist such as: ‘Have you put a title and the date? Have you created an interesting character? Have you used interesting words? Have you finished the story well?’ With illustrations where possible.
• Try colour-coding areas of work so that for example red might be spelling, green might be grammar (reinforcing the colours used by Microsoft Word spell/grammar checking) and blue could be vocabulary that’s exciting or interesting. This colour-coding could be used for writing on a whiteboard or for supportive checklists.
• Try using quiet background music, checking with the pupil that it is audible and not disturbing  for them, pupils working quietly.