Rose Ayling-Ellis returns to our TV screens fronting her own documentary this week – and she’s shocked to discover her reading age is 13.
Ever since she joined EastEnders in 2020, actress Rose has proved that being deaf will never hold her back. In the BBC documentary Signs for Change, she presents a personal journey into what it’s like to grow up deaf.
After the UK government recognised British Sign Language as law, she asks if attitudes have changed. And she also looks into her own development, and memories of school.
It’s an eye-opening, and emotional doc. And Rose once again reminds us why she won Strictly Come Dancing in 2021. She’s tenacious, positive, and inspiring.
Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change on BBC One
Actress Rose, 28, fronts this new documentary charting her own childhood growing up deaf, and asks if opinions have changed towards deaf people and sign language.
Speaking to the camera, Rose is her usually charming self when she admits: “When I was growing up, I never dreamt I would become the first regular deaf character in EastEnders. Or that I would end up winning Strictly Come Dancing.”
She proudly states that “being deaf is my proudest identity”. However, she also admits that she has to “multitask every day” as she uses lip-reading, and sign language to understand what is being said.
In one of many searingly honest moments, she says: “Sometimes I feel like I am working really hard just to fit into a hearing world.”
She also breaks down during the documentary when she admits she “often felt left out” growing up.
Rose Ayling-Ellis has the reading age of a 13 year old
Rose was born deaf to hearing parents. Although some medical professionals told Rose’s family members that she probably wouldn’t ever be able to speak, Rose did go on to learn how to speak, lip read and sign.
She is passionate about signing, and believes every deaf person should be able to learn it for free. Her tenacity about bringing British Sign Language (BSL) to the fore is infectious.
Looking into her own education, Rose shares some surprising statistics. Research shows that most deaf people leave school with a reading age between 9 and 11.
Rose bravely agrees to take a test in both English and BSL to determine her reading age, with results that shock her. Rose discovers that her own reading age is that of a 13 year old. That’s less than half of her real age.
She rates 28 out of 40 for BSL.
Rose Ayling-Elli reading age: Have things changed for deaf people?
While Rose is thrilled that there’s now a deaf Barbie (she used to draw a hearing aid on hers as a kid), she admits there’s still some way to go.
In uncomfortable scenes, Rose watches a BBC documentary from 1973 in which deaf children were described as “retarded”. The narrator describes how many deaf children “are not diagnosed until the age of two”.
The film continues: “As a result, they may be retarded, and the longer the delay in finding them, the worst the handicap.”
Although, thanks largely to Rose, attitudes to the deaf community have changed, Rose laments that “even today, some people believe sign language is inferior to speech”.
However, Rose admits that taking part in Strictly taught her that “suddenly the focus was on what I could do and not what I couldn’t do”.
Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change airs on Monday, June 26, 2023 at 9pm on BBC One.
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