CHILDREN who suffer mild hearing loss are not being given enough support in schools, with their academic achievement affected by the lack of help, according to research.

Resources are mainly targeted at profoundly deaf youngsters, leaving those with mild hearing loss overlooked, the study led by Edinburgh University academics found. They found youngsters with mild and moderate deafness were given only 1.6 and 2.6 hours of support each week respectively, compared with 17.2 hours for profoundly deaf students.

At the same time, because children with mild hearing problems have better speech skills, learning difficulties such as smaller vocabularies and problems picking up information can be missed.

Dr Rowena Arshad, head of the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education, said: "If we are serious about inclusion and getting it right for every child, the principle has to be about needs and not numbers. A good place to start would be to identify ways we can increase communication and cooperation between parents, teachers, education authorities and researchers."

The research team, whose work was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, compared the educational achievement of 540 16-year-olds in Scotland. The average for the general population was 173, with mildly deaf pupils scoring 144 and profoundly deaf 128.

The report recommends more support hours for children with mild hearing loss and improved acoustics in classrooms.