| Summary: | The number of deaf children and young people (CYP) being educated in inclusive settings rather than special schools has grown over recent years (Swanwick & Gregory, 2007) and current statistics show that the majority of deaf CYP are now educated in mainstream schools (Consortium for Research in Deaf Education, CRIDE, 2015). This has not been without challenges and literature has highlighted these from the perspective of CYP (Sutherland & Young, 2007; Doherty, 2012); parental views (Rasebopye, 2010) and stakeholder experiences (National Deaf Children’s Society, NDCS, 2008). This qualitative study aims to address a gap in the research literature through investigating what stakeholders consider to be the implications for deaf CYP from Welsh speaking homes when educated in English medium resource units. It is hoped to provide a useful insight into the perceptions of the key stakeholders in this field and through this identify how to best support deaf CYP in Wales. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of stakeholders from five Local Authorities (LAs) across Wales. Thematic Analysis was utilised to analyse the data following the guidelines of Braun and Clarke (2006). The main themes constructed were: ‘Being deaf’, ‘Being Welsh’, ‘The need for English’ and ‘The emotional impact of deafness’. In particular, the evidence from this research highlights the challenges that Welsh speaking deaf CYP and their parents, encounter and the impact of being a minority within a minority. The implications for the potential role of Educational Psychologists (EPs) working with deaf CYP as well as the strengths, limitations of the research and the need for further studies are discussed.
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