Clear ears, clear learning: The simple steps helping kids hear
Perched near the banks of the Balonne River roughly 4 hours west of Toowoomba, St George State School has been a bedrock of the proud community after which it is named for 150 years.
Currently home to around 160 students and 30 staff, it's a small but diverse school, representing the 3,000 strong town that sits within the traditional lands of the Kamilaroi, Mandandanji, Bigambul, Kooma and Yulwaalaraay people.
Year 1–2 teacher Olivia Skea is taking her young class through a brief session of 'blow, breathe, cough, wash, chew' where 3 times a day students and staff alike blow their noses and breathe as a class to clear out sinuses.
At first, it may seem unusual, but for this very special school, it's actually helping students to maximise their learning.
The pathway to better hearing
With 65% of the school's students from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background, the student body is considered high risk for hearing issues—the rates of middle ear infection and hearing loss for First Nations children are one of the highest in the world. These children can experience middle ear disease earlier, more frequently, with greater severity and for longer periods.
With the challenges of COVID in 2020 interrupting the regular testing that had formerly been provided by Queensland Health, principal Glenda Moloney was concerned that some students were at risk of slipping through the cracks with potential hearing issues going undiagnosed.
'For our families there are a lot of costs involved in going to see hearing specialists,' Glenda says.
'We'd tried to screen our kids, we'd gotten quotes from private health providers, but it was a lot of money for us, and also for our families.'
Even without up-to-date comprehensive testing, Glenda knew many of her students likely had undetected issues with their hearing.
The school already had a number of strategies in place to help hard-of-hearing students, but without accurate testing, it was difficult to provide targeted assistance.
The school's struggles came to the attention of one of the Education Department's deaf and hard of hearing advisory visiting teachers, who realised the potential benefits of connecting St George with the Hearing Pathways team.
Hearing Pathways, a collaboration between Queensland Education and Queensland Health, recognises the far-reaching impact that hearing loss can have on a child's learning. The team work with school staff to identify hearing issues through screening. Students with hearing loss receive vital support for both hearing and learning, allowing them to reach their full potential in the classroom.
A first in Darling Downs
As a speech language pathologist with over 25 years of education experience, Dr Gayle Hemsley is acutely aware of the challenges caused by child hearing loss.
Gayle leads the department's hearing pathways program, which works alongside schools to build their capacity to identify and support students with hearing loss. Each school appoints a 'Hearing Champion' to drive this work in collaboration with the Hearing Pathways team, ensuring that both students and parents receive the necessary support.
Gayle says many hearing problems can be treated relatively easily, if caught early enough.
'Most parents are familiar with antibiotics, grommets and other ear treatments, either from their own experiences or those of family and friends,' she says.
'Waiting times and access to specialist treatment can be a challenge, especially in rural and remote areas. If you refer a little person in Prep and they have to wait for 2 years to see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist for corrective surgery, this can greatly impact learning outcomes.
'Hearing loss can especially impact early reading and writing; even a mild or one-sided hearing loss can impact a child's ability hear some sounds in words and some words in sentences.'
In 2021, Gayle and the Hearing Pathways team set out to expand the vision for early identification of hearing loss across Queensland.
'St George is our first piece of work in Darling Downs South West, where we are finding large numbers of students at risk of hearing loss that have never been tested, never been managed and that remote aspect really does add another layer of challenge,' says Gayle.
And while the remoteness of St George seemed daunting at first, Gayle soon realised the community was every bit as passionate about the project as she was.
'I feel like the town did everything except roll out the red carpet and a marching band,' she says.
'We'd go to a coffee shop in the morning, and the staff asked where we were from. When we said we were from Brisbane, they immediately asked, 'are you here for the hearing day'?'
'It was very well received by the community.'
Big Hearing Days
Held over 2 days in October 2024, the whole-school event involved community sponsored healthy morning breakfasts, games and activities, and goody bags for students to take home.
Students were tested via the Sound Scouts app. Using a gamified interface, they're tasked with listening for sounds and words in increasingly noisy environments, moving from a silent game into one that simulates listening in a noisy classroom.
'It is highly accurate in identifying students at risk of hearing loss,' says Gayle.
Of the 126 students tested during the event, 19 showed evidence of hearing loss including 14 students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.
St George State School Head of Special Education Services and Hearing Champion Ella Harrison says hearing issues can have social impacts on top of affecting educational outcomes.
'It can have impacts on their ability to socialise with other students. It also impacts their behaviour, if they have pain in their ears or just from frustration of not being able to hear,' she says.
Gayle adds that hearing loss can be mistaken for issues with student focus.
'Often these students look like attention challenges, with difficulties listening, staying on task and answering questions. But, with hearing loss, they are actually having to work so much harder to draw meaning from what teachers are saying,' Gayle says.
'If you have a hearing loss, you're not hearing some sounds in words, and you're not hearing some words in sentences. You're constantly missing information and this makes a student very tired, and very fatigued.
'Once hearing loss is identified and adjustments are made to the environment and teaching strategies, it is wonderful to hear teachers report a totally different child—listening, engaging and learning.'
A more inclusive classroom
Armed with the knowledge of which students suffer hearing loss and how it affects their learning, the school has put in place a range of technologies and strategies to assist in day-to-day learning.
'All classrooms and teachers have access to and utilise SoundField systems,' Glenda says.
'The purpose of it is not to make the teacher's voice louder in the classroom. It's to make it clearer.'
The system is built around a number of speakers placed around the room which are fed by a microphone worn by the teacher. Rather than purely amplifying the speaker's voice, which creates more noise, they aim to provide clarity of speech.
Olivia Skea is one of the teachers who uses the system on a daily basis.
'After those [hearing] screening tests were done, we were able to see which students were struggling with hearing just in their left ear or their right ear, or both ears, and we were able to place them in a position near those speakers where they had the best chance of hearing us clearly,' Olivia says.
'We sat down and made a whole list of all the students [with hearing difficulties] and updated their personal learning records, as they won't necessarily have the same teacher next year.'
But not all strategies need to rely on technology, instead being focused on education, discussion, and mindfulness about each child's individual needs.
'As teachers, we're more mindful if we're crouching down to speak to a child who has poor hearing in their left ear, about going to go to their right side instead,' Olivia says.
'I've seen greater engagement from students in their learning and even their attentiveness, as opposed to what it was like before.'
Looking to the future
With more than 500 schools and some 8,000 students each year undergoing testing using Sound Scouts, the Hearing Pathways team is having a big impact across the state.
In 2024 alone, more than 2,500 Prep students underwent testing with around 16% showing signs of hearing problems which required follow up.
With initial testing complete at St George, Queensland Health will be taking the next step in early 2025, reviewing students who showed signs of hearing loss.
This is one of the benefits of the Hearing Pathways work—the connection with Queensland Health and other hearing health partners ensures that student medical and educational needs are considered holistically and not in isolation. Some students may require only minor adjustments and assistance, with others potentially needing more.
In the meantime, the school's dedicated teaching staff continue with their simple but effective daily interventions such as regular breathing exercises; as Olivia says, once you're used to clear sinuses and easy breathing, it's hard to go back.
It's an important lesson to keep in mind—whether in or out of the classroom, don't forget to blow, breathe, cough, wash and chew.
