VIETNAM DEAF EDUCATION PROGRAM
for teachers, families, and children with hearing loss

We're spending the year in Vietnam. Visit our BLOG to learn more!

Check out our video about the foundation and our work in Vietnam:  

OVERVIEW

There are over 180,000 children with hearing loss under the age of 18 in Vietnam. For these children to develop listening and spoken language skills, they must have early access to sound (hearing aids and/or cochlear implants) and to trained professionals who can help foster their auditory and language development.  With such support, these children can then aspire to broader education and employment opportunities in Vietnam and have greater potential for leading independent lives in their hearing communities. There is savings to society as well with the reduction in need for lifelong state disability support.

OPPORTUNITY

Vietnam only recently began providing education and resources to professionals, teachers, and families who work with or have children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The framework of audiology support is in its early stages of development and speech therapy, early intervention, and auditory-verbal education are still relatively new concepts. The Vietnamese deaf education community has requested more training in Listening and Spoken Language for children with hearing loss.

OUR SOLUTION

The Global Foundation For Children With Hearing Loss is collaborating with Thuan An Center for Disabled Children and Ho Chi Minh City University in Vietnam on a multi-faceted Deaf Education Program to fill this need. The program features Summer Training, Mobile Missions, and Hearing Aid Distribution initiatives. Thirty-eight schools for the deaf across 20 provinces and 2 hospitals are participating. The multi-year program is designed to empower teachers, families, and medical teams with the expertise and tools they need to serve children with hearing loss -- and then train each other.

A contingent of professionals from US, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore with expertise in audiology, speech language pathology, auditory-verbal education, and early intervention design the curriculum for all the program elements and travel to Vietnam to teach the material.

SUMMER TRAINING

The Summer Training component features a multi-year curriculum covering audiology, speech therapy, early intervention, and auditory verbal education. Teachers, medical teams, and therapists from the participating schools and hospitals travel to Thuan An Center each summer to board and to attend the training. They build on their knowledge over time.

The curriculum includes lectures and practicum by day for teachers, evening sessions for parents, and individual consultations with families - all designed to help children acquire listening and spoken language skills.

The Summer Training also offers in-depth audiology course for staff who do audiology work at the schools, hearing aid dispensers, and hospital medical teams. We also fit hearing aids on children from low-income families.

The Foundation and Thuan An Center held the first training event in Summer, 2010 and the second in Summer, 2011. Those who pass the final test at the conclusion of each summer workshop are invited to return and progress to the next level the following summer. We have trained over 150 teachers, families, and medical teams in our summer programs. Our next summer program will occur in July 2012. Click here for a short highlight reel of the 2011 Teacher Training Program. 

MOBILE MISSIONS

The Mobile Mission program complements the summer teacher training workshops. A team of international experts travel to a contingent of the schools and hospitals participating in our Deaf Education Program throughout the year to provide in-classroom coaching support, audiology training, counseling to families, and hearing testing and hearing aid fitting for children. We have conducted two Mobile Missions with plans for another in 2013. Click here for our VIDEO montage of our 2011 event. Check out testimonials we received from participants in our 2012 Mobile Mission.

OUR IMPACT

Our Deaf Education Program is directly benefitting 900 deaf and hard of hearing children. In lockstep with the quote: "Give me a fish and I will eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime. Teach me to teach others to fish and we can feed the world", program participants are sharing their learning with others, making the benefits exponential -- and sustainable.

Click here to read a Vietnamese teacher's personal perspective on how our Deaf Education program has made a difference for one of her young students and her ability to help him. We also produce newsletters of tips and information about audiology, deaf education, speech pathology, and early intervention that are translated and distributed to the participants in our program.  The Director of Thuan An Center wrote this letter to our Executive Director reflecting on progress made and the impact of this program.

We are collaborating with academics from Utah State University speech and hearing department on evaluation measures and research tied to this project.  Our Deaf Education Program is a model we plan to expand to other developing countries.

MEDIA COVERAGE

Please click on the links below to read news coverage about this program:

Audiology Now Australia

Interview: Invent For Humanity

Oticon People First Magazine (Danish version) (English version)

Volta Voices- Alexander Graham Bell Association Magazine

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association ASHA Leader Magazine

Interview: American Academy of Audiology (AAA)

Hearing Loss Association of America Magazine

Northwest Asian Weekly

Voice of America (Vietnamese)