Deaf kids’ families deserve better

As the mother of a profoundly deaf young man, I read Ethan Ennals’s article in last week’s Mail on Sunday about parents being denied access to sign language lessons for their deaf children with a mixture of anger and sadness.

My son’s deafness wasn’t discovered until he was two years old. He had very responsive social workers who provided access to a succession of excellent language aides who came to our home and taught us sign language.

When it came time for him to go to school, he was assigned a lady who used British Sign Language (BSL), and she supported him in class.

He’s now 26, and I’m proud to say that we are still in touch with a lot of the people who helped my son on his sign language journey. He has now achieved his level one and two awards for BSL and is studying for his third level.

Unfortunately, we have to pay for these classes, and it isn’t cheap.

It is very sad that the service provided to me and my son is not available any more to families starting the same journey.

Charlotte Jenkins, Woodbridge, Suffolk