Discussing Diagnosis
Parents and carers: When your child or baby is first diagnosed with deafness or vision impairment they are normally referred to our team shortly afterwards. Our staff take time to visit you at home or at clinic and talk to you about what it means and about how services like ours can help.
Our team has strong links with the London NHS audiology and vision teams. They refer children to us with parental consent and will explain to you why it’s helpful for our team to support you and your child.
If your child is not yet diagnosed and you have questions about how to seek testing you can contact us for advice.
sensory-service@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or Rory McDonnell, Team Leader, 07921285953 (including WhatsApp and Facetime calls)
Young people: if you become deafened or develop vision impairment as an older child or young adult our team will visit you at home and at school and offer you help and support. We normally then continue to visit you at school to make sure that you have all of the right support to make good progress.
Web Resources about new diagnosis
There are many resources available to support discussion about deafness and vision impairment with babies and children of all ages. The following are good starting points:
National Deaf Children’s Society Support pages for new diagnosis
https://www.ndcs.org.uk/information-and-support/first-diagnosis/
RNIB Support page for new VI diagnosis