Hearing impaired child due to start at weekend - questions for nursery?

[mathremuk]

Hi!

Just had a lovely little lad (3 years old) visit yesterday and his mum wants to start him every other saturday. Its an 8 hour day so I am assuming EYFS is all still relevant be it a short period with me.

Its the first time ive had a child that attends another setting and the first time ive had any child with any sort of impairment so I want to get this right.

I am going to ask the parent to write detailed notes on his impairment and its effect on his delayed speech (she mentioned).

What else should I be asking to see? A HV report maybe. He has grommets. How should I liase with his nursery on this? Should I ask them to send information over? If so what should I be asking for.

Thanks in advance!

[bunyip]

There's some information here which might help: Glue ear - Treatment - NHS Choices (http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Glue-ear/Pages/Treatment.aspx)

I would ask the parents for consent to contact their GP for specific advice. failing that, never be afraid to contact your own GP or practice nurse and ask for a telephone appointment. I explain that I'm a registered CM and ask for general advice "for a child in my care" without naming any names and thereby not breaking any confidences. They're always happy to help out.

For any child at nursery, I run a 'communications book'. It's a standard-sized exercise book which mum/dad transfer between our two settings once a week. the nursery and I each write about a half-page of notes on the child's activities, mood, etc. and any particular achievements or 'wow moments'. We also keep up to date on 'next steps' so we can remain consistent. With parents' consent, we share any tracker updates, periodic reviews, 2 year check documents, etc. As a general rule, we agree which setting will act as the 'main' setting, based on attendance hours, and that setting take the lead on next steps and planning, with the other setting supporting and complimenting that.

I often find children do very well when they combine nursery and CM across a week (one reason why I hate the argument about whether nursery or CM is "better".) If you work well together and communicate well, they can get the best of both worlds. It's worth looking out for any differences in how the child is between the two settings. I find children often behave/act/learn differently in different settings. This seems to surprise a lot of parents and childcarers. It shouldn't: I'm sure we all have different 'faces' for work, home, the in-laws, Friday nights, etc.

[hectors house]

I would ask if there any other professionals involved eg: does he see a speech therapist, pediatrician, audiologist - you need to find out if the family have been advised to do any kind of signing as sometimes if the child is deaf they (the specialists) prefer you to not do any Makaton signing as it could confuse child if they will be learning British sign language.

[mathremuk]

Thanks everyone for all that info.

My development officer has just given me some more info too so I'm feeling well informed at the moment 😊

[sarah707]

Just thinking out of the box here ... as it's a Saturday could you do it as a nanny? then you wouldn't need any paperwork apart from anything you wanted to do... you'd still be able to spend some time at home as long as you are based at the child's home...

Hth :D