Our Ewing Foundation team are pleased to offer deaf education professionals online bite-size learning opportunities.

Each thirty-minute session includes an introduction to the topic, time for discussion and a take-home summary of the session. These sessions are free of charge, and provide a great bite-size opportunity to network and share good practice! More bite-size dates for the 2024-25 academic year are to be announced during the summer. Please email info@ewing-foundation.org.uk if you would like to be notified when dates are released.

Examples of free online training during June and July 2024:

Let’s talk about the Ling-Madell-Hewitt (LMH) Test Battery
This session provided an introduction to the LMH Test Battery and what led to its development. We considered what the LMH may tell us about a child’s access to the sounds of speech and how this information could be used to inform our conversations with audiologists.

An overview of the CELF-5 language assessment with particular reference to assessing pragmatic skills (please note that this is a repeat of the bite-size CELF session delivered in the spring term) This session looked at the potential for using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 5 (CELF-5) to assess the language of deaf learners from age 5 to 21 years.

The CELF-5 allows us to assess deaf learners’ language holistically giving an overview of areas of strength and challenge. The updated CELF-5 has two additional sections to assess deaf learners’ pragmatics skills. The Pragmatics Profile is a checklist of speech intentions and the Pragmatics Activity Checklist provides activities to set up and use with the child, providing opportunities to observe what pragmatic skills they have and how they use these pragmatic skills. This bite-size session provided an overview of the CELF, with particular reference to the assessment of deaf learners’ pragmatic skills.

An overview of the information and advice section of the new NICE Guidelines on otitis media with effusion in under 12s, and suggestions of resources available to help you support families and early years settings The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published new guidelines on otitis media with effusion in under 12s in August 2023. The previous guidelines were published fifteen years before in 2008. The new guidelines include a change in terminology from a period of ‘Watchful Waiting’ to ‘Monitoring and Support’. Given that 80% of children will have glue ear on at least one occasion by the age of four, the session considered the advice that families need to promote positive outcomes for young children with a fluctuating temporary hearing loss caused by glue ear. Thank you to everyone who attended our first afternoon learning opportunity.