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- Sensory support service
This session is for parents and carers, and provides you with all the information you need to support your child with glue ear.
Next dates:
- Wednesday 12 June 2024, from 1pm to 2.30pm
- Wednesday 9 October 2024, from 1pm to 2.30pm
Address: Elmfield House, Greystoke Avenue, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS32 0DS
About the session
At this session:
- find out what glue ear is and why it's so common in young children
- talk about the common signs and symptoms of glue ear
- learn about the different interventions available, such as:
- monitoring and support
- hearing aids
- grommets
- auto-inflation
- share the effect that glue ear is having on your child's listening, speech and language and behaviour and discuss how this can impact their wellbeing
- discuss simple steps that you can take to help your child
- consider your child's listening environment and how you could improve this
- take home information to share with your child's nursery or preschool, to inform them about glue ear and provide ways to support for your child
How to book
For more information and to book your free place, email sensorysupportservice@bristol.gov.uk
The session is supported by Glue Ear Together, a charity that works with families, education and health, to provide clear, up-to-date information that promotes positive outcomes for children with glue ear.
A practical course to raise awareness of the high incidence of glue ear in preschool children and the impact that it can have on all areas of child development.
This course gives early years practitioners information about the simple steps they can take in their early years setting, to improve:
- access to the spoken word for all children
- the wellbeing and learning outcomes for children with a fluctuating, temporary hearing loss
Learning outcomes include:
- understanding what glue ear is and what causes it
- awareness of the prevalence of glue ear in the early years
- identifying the impact of glue ear on speech access and considering how this will affect the child
- information about interventions including grommet insertion, hearing aids and autoinflation
- considering the listening environment of your setting and the steps you could take to improve this
- top tips for supporting communication for a child with glue ear
- learning strategies you can use to monitor speech access
- describing 5 take home points from the course that you can put into practice in your setting
The course runs on 19 March 2024 from 1pm to 4pm.
Multi-sensory support impact on learning, what support is available for children and young people with a multi-sensory impairment.
How multi-sensory impairment can impact learning
For children and young people with combined vision and hearing impairment, neither sense can compensate for the lack of the other.
The access to clear and consistent flow of visual and auditory information necessary for learning, communication, interaction and overall development is reduced. Incidental learning may be limited.
Children and young people with multi-sensory impairment may also have additional disabilities such as:
- further sensory impairments, for example of touch, balance or smell
- physical disabilities
- complex medical needs
- learning difficulties
These will all compound their needs to access learning.
What support is available
Children and young people with multi-sensory impairment need support to meet their individual needs. This will include a combination of the support and provision under Vision Support or Hearing Support.
Children and young people with multi-sensory impairment may be supported by a range of professionals from the Sensory Support Service. This will depend on their needs and may change over time.
For example, support could be provided by:
- a specialist teacher in multi-sensory impairment (MSI teacher)
- a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD)
- a Qualified Teacher for the Visually Impaired (QTVI)
Often these teachers will work together.
The level of support provided by each professional:
- may be different from each other
- may vary over time to address specific needs, for example, establishing the use hearing aids
It’s important to work holistically, as a multi-disciplinary team, to improve access to education alongside health and social care.
Professionals from the Sensory Support Service will work with families and other professionals involved with the child or young person with multi-sensory impairment.
What Low Vision Aids are, types of Low Vision Aids, further information.
What Low Vision Aids (LVAs) are
A low vision aid (LVA) is a device that increases a child or young person’s visual access.
Types of LVAs
LVAs can be grouped in two basic categories.
Near LVAs
These are for close-up, detailed activities such as:
- reading
- writing
- crafting
Most LVAs may isolate, bring closer or magnify an image or text.
Others have more sophisticated functions, for example they can:
- change the background colour or the font colour
- provide more light
- provide a higher level of contrast
Distance LVAs
These are for activities which are further away such as:
- reading street signs
- identifying numbers on buses
- seeing the teacher
- accessing a whiteboard
Some distance LVAs just bring a distant image closer. Others can:
- change colours of the image
- change the level of contrast
- freeze the image
Examples of LVAs
LVAs can be further subdivided into:
- those that may be recommended by a Qualified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (QTVI) or
- specialist magnifiers that might be prescribed by an orthoptist through a low vision clinic
LVAs that might be recommended by a QTVI include:
- typoscope
- reading ruler
- sloping desk
- specialist electronic magnifiers with a camera and big monitor, often coming with a specially designed worktop
An orthoptist will:
- assess individual needs by taking into consideration:
- tasks performed by the patient
- the nature of the vision loss
- prescribe appropriate LVAs, as some people may use more than one
Further information
You can find more information on:
- the RNIB Help with Low Vision page
- the Partially Sighted Society website
Download Kindle app for iOS
On your iPad or iPhone, go to the App Store. Use the search feature to find the Kindle app.
Tap “Get” button, and wait until the download is complete.
Register the Kindle app with your Amazon account
Import only the books you want
When you open the Kindle app, you’ll see two tabs at the bottom: “Cloud” and “Device.”
Cloud tab
When you tap the Cloud button, you’ll see all the books that are stored in your Kindle cloud library.
Device tab
Your Kindle app comes with just one document that is pre-downloaded. It’s a simple guide with a few tips to get you started.
Once you download any book from the Cloud tab, it will appear in the Device section. Every book available in the Device tab can be accessed offline, which means you open and read it even when your iPad is not connected to the internet.
Download free Kindle eBooks
You can find free eBooks in the Kindle Store, but there is no way to add them directly from within the Kindle for iOS app. Instead, you can explore Amazon website in a dedicated Amazon shopping app or a web browser like Safari or Chrome.
Find the book file in a browser
When you open the mobile version of Project Gutenberg on your iPhone or iPad, you can easily find the most popular titles. Pick up the one that you want to download and tap it.
Select the right format
When you are on a page with book details and download options, it’s important to pick up the file format which is supported by Kindle e-readers and apps.
On Project Gutenberg, it’s simply named “Kindle.” On other sites, make sure to find formats called “mobi” or “prc.” You can also download the pdf file, but it’s not as flexible as mobi. For instance, you won’t be able to increase the font size, adjust margins, or turn on the night mode.
Project Gutenberg gives the option to select the Kindle file with or without pictures
Open the file with the Kindle app for iOS
When you tap the download link or button, the dialog window will appear asking you to decide what to do with the file. Tap “Open in Kindle” link
The eBook will open in the Kindle app, and you can start reading it instantly.
When you tap the screen, the view will change to reveal the full interface.
To adjust the settings, on the top bar tap the Aa icon.
In the settings panel, you can change:
- the level of brightness
- the background color
- the size of the font
- the typeface
- the line height
- the justification
Adjust the font
The size and type of the font can be changed instantly in the Kindle app for iOS. Therefore you can adjust the look of the text to what your needs are here and now.
Adjust the background
Many book-reading apps offer a selection of backgrounds so that users can pick up the one that suits them most.
In the Kindle app for iPad and iPhone, you can select one of the three background+font color schemes:
- White
- Sephia: a color scheme designed to ease the eye strain and resemble the look of the page from an old print book. This option is not good if you want to read eBooks outside.
- Black: the color of the background is combined with white font. It’s the night mode, perfect when there's no external source of light. The screen doesn’t emit as much light as in White or Sephia mode, and you can read longer without causing eye strain.
Although you can’t buy eBooks directly in the Kindle for iOS, the app is helpful when it comes to discovering new books to read.
How to discover new books with Kindle for iOS
There are a few ways Kindle app will suggest you free samples to download from the Kindle Store.
If you are in the Library view and use the Search feature to find the book in your Kindle library, the app will also suggest the books from the Kindle Store that answer the search term you entered.
For instance, when you type “Harry Potter,” on the list of results you'll see all the Harry Potter books you’ve bought. Underneath, in Kindle Free Samples section, you can find the books from the Kindle Store that match your search.
Unlike the Android version, Kindle for iPad or iPhone doesn’t provide a text-to-speech feature.
You can listen to the Kindle books you've bought with an advanced feature called Whispersync for Voice.
What Whispersync for Voice is
Whispersync for Voice is a service that lets you switch between reading a Kindle book and listening to its audiobook version.
To enable the Whispersync for Voice, you’ll need to buy an audiobook companion to the Kindle edition you have.
Find Kindle books with Audible narration
Amazon provides a feature that lets you find which of the Kindle books you own have the Audible narration.
There are over 60,000 Kindle books that come with Audible narration.
You can find your match beginning at the Audible narration home page.
Enable Whispersync for Voice
Once you add the Audible narration to the Kindle book, follow the steps below to enable Whispersync for Voice.
Open the Kindle book that has the audiobook companion
When you open this book in the Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad, the message about the availability of the audiobook will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Tap “Tap to Download” and wait until the download is complete.
Make sure you're connected to Wi-Fi, as the audiobook file can be larger than 100 MB.
Switch between reading and listening
When you open a Kindle book with Audible narration, the icon of the headphones will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Tap the headphones icon to reveal the audiobook bar and play the audiobook. While you hear the voice, the matching parts of the text are being highlighted.
With Whispersync for Voice, you can easily change between reading and listening, and enjoy the story in different ways.
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