Hearing impairment
Hearing impairment describes a range of conditions.
These may vary from slight or fluctuating hearing loss to total loss of hearing (deafness).
The Scout Association is committed to including all young people in Scouting. To support Adult Leaders in including deaf young people in mainstream Scouting, we have been working with the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) to produce a resource about making Scouting Deaf Friendly.
To meet the needs of deaf young people you may need to make some specific adaptations to the way you lead the group.
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Get the attention of all Scouts before starting to talk.
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Speak clearly and naturally and face deaf Scouts when talking to them, allowing some space between the two of you for signing or lip reading purposes.
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Lip reading involves a lot of guesswork, so don't cover your face with your hands of objects or walk around while speaking.
For more information about deaf-friendly Scouting, you can download the resource below, along with our factsheet on hearing impairment. If you have any comments about this, suggestions for more inclusion resources or good news stories generated by using the booklet, then please email adult.support@scout.org.uk with Deaf Friendly as the subject.
Download Deaf-friendly Scouting resource (PDF)
View Hearing Impairment (FS250015) (PDF)