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

We're spending the 2012 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, spoken language, and cognitive 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, contributing 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.

OUR SOLUTION

The Global Foundation For Children With Hearing Loss is collaborating with Thuan An Center for Hearing-Impaired Children in Vietnam on a multi-faceted Deaf Education Program. It features teacher training, professional development, audiology training, and hearing aid distribution initiatives.  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.

TEACHER TRAINING

The teacher training component of the Deaf Education Program is focused on educating teachers and families about how to help children with hearing loss between 0-6 years of age develop listening and spoken language skills. The Vietnamese deaf education community has requested more training in this area of deaf education.

A contingent of American professionals in audiology, speech language pathology, auditory-verbal education, and early intervention design the curriculum and lead the summer intensives at Thuan An Center. Teachers from 35 deaf schools across 20 provinces throughout Vietnam travel to the Center to board and engage in the month-long training. 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 program features a four-week 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 June 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 at Thuan An Center. A team of international experts travel to a contingent of the 35 deaf schools participating in our Deaf Education Program throughout the year to provide in-classroom coaching support, audiology training, mentorship to teachers, professionals, and families, and hearing testing and hearing aid fitting for children. The first Vietnam Mobile Mission was conducted in January 2011. Click here for our VIDEO montage of this event. Our second Mobile Mission will take place in February/March, 2012.

OUR IMPACT

One teacher of the deaf typically works with 10 children in Vietnam. We trained over 90 teachers in our first year alone, 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", teachers who attend the workshop will share 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 4 1/2 year old 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.

We are collaborating with academics from Utah State University and the University of Washington speech and hearing departments 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:

Interview: Invent For Humanity

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

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association ASHA Leader

Interview: American Academy of Audiology (AAA)

Hearing Loss Association of America Magazine

Northwest Asian Weekly

Voice of America (Vietnamese)