How can I support a child with hearing loss to blend?

Firstly, have you assessed the child's ability to blend in their head and show you what they know? You can do this by showing them the grapheme cards, for example c - a - t, and then getting them to point to the corresponding image from a selection? 

You can assess blending by using the SEND Phase 2 assessments, all of which have matching images. Everything you need to know about the SEND assessments can be found here.

We would also recommend that you take a look at the National Deaf Children Society’s guidance for teaching phonics, which gives some really great information about supporting deaf children with phonics, particularly from page 15. As you'll see, deafness is not a barrier to blending, but you might need to consider using a multi-sensory approach to teaching the sounds, such as cued articulation.