Education of Deaf Children in Flanders, Belgium: Current Trends and Implications

Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, was the first region in Europe to implement universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) in 1998. Early detection of hearing loss, in combination with advances in hearing technology, has provided new opportunities and different challenges especially for children with a severe to profound hearing loss. Both the population of students with hearing loss and their educational contexts and needs have undergone significant changes. The government of education and the government of health care in Flanders created several services to support students with a hearing loss and their families, which we describe in this chapter. Although the demand for specialized staff training to meet all these challenges increased, the availability of such training has declined. Historically, specialized training for professionals in deaf education was always organized by or with the special schools for the deaf. However, the expertise is diminishing as now most children are mainstreamed and the special schools have become much smaller. The specialized training supported by the government of education focuses on education of all types of children with special needs, with limited information about children with a hearing loss. Private organizations, such as ONICI (Independent Information and Research Centre on Cochlear Implants) have taken the initiative to start up training courses on different topics related to hearing loss, with great success. It is hoped that governmental support will expand to sustain these opportunities.