There are other assistive devices and technologies that will assist your child at home, school and in the community.
The terms assistive device or assistive technology can refer to any device that helps a person with hearing loss or a voice, speech, or language disorder to communicate.
Alerting devices include alarm clocks, door bells and smoke alarms. They are available from a number of commercial providers. Some state governments provide subsidies for families to install appropriate fire alarms in their homes. Contact the Deaf Society in your state for more information about what is available and where you can purchase them.
There are constantly new developments in smart phone functionality that can assist with hearing. There are accessibility features on phones (including Bluetooth) and also helpful apps that can be downloaded. Speech to text apps that may be helpful for older children in the classroom.
Interactive whiteboards provide students with hearing loss with visual resources, including captioning. Once a child can read proficiently, captioning is a technology that can enhance their learning.
Streamers are designed to direct sound from devices such as televisions, computers, whiteboards and tablets to the child’s hearing aid or cochlear implant.
Captions are used to help people understand the soundtrack of a TV program, video or DVD. They re-create the entire soundtrack in text format, usually at the bottom of the screen, so that the viewer can read it.
Many children’s TV programs and DVDs are captioned. Captions link text to spoken words and images, boosting literacy, vocabulary and general comprehension for all students, particularly students with a hearing loss.
We recommend you use captions whenever your baby or child watches television.
Find out more about captions
The National Relay Service (NRS) is an Australian Government Initiative that provides phone solutions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, including children. Calls are made through a relay officer and can be made by internet relay, video relay, mobile phone or ordinary telephone. Calls can be made 24 hours a day (apart from video relay) and are treated confidentially.
Everyone who uses the National Relay Service to make calls (except emergency calls) needs to register as an NRS user.
Disclaimer: The information contained on this website is not intended as a substitute for independent professional advice.
