Facebook Linkedin Instagram
Search
Close this search box.
Subscribe
Subscribe
Health Youth Child Protection

Experience life after hearing loss through virtual reality

mm
Lourdes Antenor April 5, 2022
2 min read
Share
hearing loss

The Shepherd Centre has unveiled a first-of-its-kind virtual reality (VR) to allow others to experience life with hearing loss. The experience was designed to prevent bullying when children with hearing loss are at school, by giving their peers a chance to live in their shoes, and encourage empathy.

The Shepherd Centre is a world-leading, child-safe NDIS service provider and specialist in helping children with hearing loss learn to listen and speak. The not-for-profit meets the needs of children of all ages, and the VR experience was developed as part of its mentoring program, Hear For You, which supports school-aged children and teenagers.

The short VR video focuses on life with hearing loss in a busy school, featuring the day to day difficulties, bullying and more that children with hearing loss are faced with each day.
Using the VR headset, the experience will for the first time take a person into the world of a deaf teenager interacting in a social situation, be it their school, youth club, or an out of school social setting. The device’s audio is designed to mirror that of what a hearing device sounds like, its challenges, and bring to the user a sense of frustration experienced every day by teenagers with hearing loss.

“Children and teenagers with hearing loss need the support of those closest to them, and often this means extending their support system to school, be it a teacher or friends. With students finally returning to school post COVID restrictions, the time for understanding is needed more than ever,” says Jim Hungerford, CEO of The Shepherd Centre.

“Students have now been at home for almost 2 years, and they may need help remembering that their friends with hearing loss need some extra support. Our VR experience allows users to live with hearing loss for a few minutes and see what that support may look like. It is an opportunity to connect with a part of life that isn’t your day to day.”

Studies in Australia and overseas found that teenagers with hearing loss are four times more likely to develop mental health challenges, be exposed to bullying, and are likely to experience social isolation from their peers during their formative years. Teenagers and their families often reach out to Hear For You to seek solutions and ways to address these issues.

The Hear For You program currently supports 154 teenagers from over 47 different schools across NSW, ACT, and Queensland. It recently launched the new “Hearing For Life” program, designed by deaf teenagers to share the message to their school peers of hearing health issues, protecting one’s hearing, and developing an understanding of what it is like to have hearing loss. The Shepherd Centre is campaigning to extend it to all schools across the country, calling for $60,000 in funding to seed the roll out to as many NSW schools as possible.

The Shepherd Centre has been enabling children with hearing loss to develop their listening and spoken language, literacy, and social skills for over 50 years, ensuring they can go on to achieve their full potential in life. Most recently, the organisation opened its latest site at Oran Park in Sydney, with support from the NSW Government through the South West Health District.

The Shepherd Centre currently supports over 750 families across Australia with Online Telehealth for rural and regional areas and nine in-person locations in Tasmania, Canberra, Shellharbour, Wollongong, Oran Park, Liverpool, Macquarie, Newtown.

mp
Lourdes Antenor
Website | + posts

Lourdes Antenor is an experienced writer who specialises in the not-for-profit sector and its affiliations. She is the content producer for Third Sector News, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian NFP sector.

Tags:
Previous Article
Next Article

You Might also Like

Mission Australia is putting out the call for young people aged 15-19 to have their say in the charity’s 23rd annual Youth Survey. The Youth Survey is an invaluable opportunity for young people to share what they view as the key issues impacting the country and highlight their own personal challenges. In 2023, nearly 20,000 young people completed the survey, naming the environment (44%), equity and discrimination (31%), the economy and financial matters (31%) and mental health (30%) as the issues they believe are most important in Australia. Respondents also expressed greater levels of concern relating to the issue of housing and homelessness than in previous years (19%, up from 12% in 2022). Mission Australia CEO Sharon Callister said the Youth Survey provides a vital outlet for young people to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences. “The results of the 2024 survey will reflect the current reality for young people in Australia,” said Callister. “Our young people are living with the existential anxiety of climate change while also navigating a cost-of-living crisis where housing stress is impacting many families,” she added. Results of the survey will be published in November and are shared with government and non-government organisations, schools and the public. “Policymakers, organisations and schools draw on our Youth Survey data when making decisions that impact young people and when determining how best to support them during what can be a challenging time in their lives,” added Callister. “Strong levels of participation in Mission Australia’s Youth Survey will ensure the views of young people are comprehensively captured and their voices heard, so I encourage community groups, schools and sporting organisations to publicise the survey and support young people to get involved,” Callister added. The survey focuses on a wide range of topics, including questions on mental health and wellbeing, sources of support and community connections, housing and financial situation, climate change, and personal concerns such as body image, bullying, discrimination and stress. Young people are also asked to provide solutions to the personal issues they face. Additional focus areas for 2024 are social media use, loneliness and opinions relating to alcohol and drugs. Youth Survey 2024 is open from April to August and takes 20 minutes to complete. Respondents can complete the survey online, either through arrangements with participating schools or groups or individually through Mission Australia’s website.
Australia’s Largest Youth Survey Set to Amplify Young Voices
Menchie Khairuddin April 11, 2024
youth
New Report on recommendations to better assist the youth
Menchie Khairuddin March 27, 2024
Forgotten Middle
Opinion: The Missing Link for the Forgotten Middle
Stephen Lewin February 21, 2024

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Today’s Pick

grants awarded
$555,0000 rapid response grants for charities and nonprofit announced to combat coronavirus
Pearl Dy April 27, 2020

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related Stories

Mission Australia is putting out the call for young people aged 15-19 to have their say in the charity’s 23rd annual Youth Survey. The Youth Survey is an invaluable opportunity for young people to share what they view as the key issues impacting the country and highlight their own personal challenges. In 2023, nearly 20,000 young people completed the survey, naming the environment (44%), equity and discrimination (31%), the economy and financial matters (31%) and mental health (30%) as the issues they believe are most important in Australia. Respondents also expressed greater levels of concern relating to the issue of housing and homelessness than in previous years (19%, up from 12% in 2022). Mission Australia CEO Sharon Callister said the Youth Survey provides a vital outlet for young people to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences. “The results of the 2024 survey will reflect the current reality for young people in Australia,” said Callister. “Our young people are living with the existential anxiety of climate change while also navigating a cost-of-living crisis where housing stress is impacting many families,” she added. Results of the survey will be published in November and are shared with government and non-government organisations, schools and the public. “Policymakers, organisations and schools draw on our Youth Survey data when making decisions that impact young people and when determining how best to support them during what can be a challenging time in their lives,” added Callister. “Strong levels of participation in Mission Australia’s Youth Survey will ensure the views of young people are comprehensively captured and their voices heard, so I encourage community groups, schools and sporting organisations to publicise the survey and support young people to get involved,” Callister added. The survey focuses on a wide range of topics, including questions on mental health and wellbeing, sources of support and community connections, housing and financial situation, climate change, and personal concerns such as body image, bullying, discrimination and stress. Young people are also asked to provide solutions to the personal issues they face. Additional focus areas for 2024 are social media use, loneliness and opinions relating to alcohol and drugs. Youth Survey 2024 is open from April to August and takes 20 minutes to complete. Respondents can complete the survey online, either through arrangements with participating schools or groups or individually through Mission Australia’s website.
Australia’s Largest Youth Survey Set to Amplify Young Voices
youth
New Report on recommendations to better assist the youth
Forgotten Middle
Opinion: The Missing Link for the Forgotten Middle

Next Up

Thebarton Senior College students build prosthetic hands for amputee victims in the developing world
Lourdes Antenor April 5, 2022

Third Sector provides high-level content and services for professional development and organisational growth to leaders and senior executives from Australia’s NFP sector and its supporting industries.

How can we help?

Request Media Kit

Third Sector

Quick Links

Events

Let's Get Social

Facebook Linkedin Instagram

Third Sector acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

2024 All rights reserved. © Third Sector made by Akolade.