VIETNAM TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM
for the deaf and hard of hearing

Read about our latest trip to Vietnam! Visit: childrenwithhearingloss.blogspot.com

Watch Our Interview with Thuy, the Director of Thuan An Center: 

OVERVIEW

There are approximately 180,000 deaf and profoundly hard of hearing children (under age 18) in Vietnam.  This number will continue to rise as early identification of hearing loss becomes more common and hospitals integrate hearing screens into their checkups of newborn infants.  It is essential for these deaf and hard of hearing children to receive special education resources early in life if they are to acquire the education and communication skills they need to become productive members of Vietnamese society.

OPPORTUNITY

Vietnam only recently began providing training and support for deaf education.  Vietnamese teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing are generally limited in their expertise and need additional preparation to ensure the success of these children.  There is a significant opportunity to train these teachers about effective methods for serving children with hearing loss and their families.  

OUR SOLUTION

The Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss, a 501(c)3 non-profit, is collaborating with South Vietnam’s Thuan An Center to conduct a teacher training program for Vietnamese teachers of deaf and hard of hearing children.  The program's purpose is to prepare these teachers to help hearing-impaired infants and children develop spoken language and listening skills during the critical period of language development that occurs in the first years of life. These children will then be better prepared to join their hearing peers in regular classrooms, engage in the community, acquire jobs, and have a better chance for success in hearing society.

Our program will bring 15 American experts in audiology, speech language pathology, auditory-verbal education, and early intervention to Vietnam to work with 85 teachers in a one-month intensive workshop in the summer of 2010.  These teachers will come from 34 schools throughout South Vietnam to board at Thuan An, where the workshop will be held.  The focus of the first workshop will be on educating children aged 0-6. 

With appropriate funding, this workshop will be held on an annual basis for three consecutive summers, and could eventually evolve into a larger degree program.

POTENTIAL IMPACT

Since one teacher typically works with 10 children, a single workshop has the potential to directly benefit 850 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 a person to teach others to fish and we can feed the world”, teachers who attend the workshop will share learnings with others, making the benefits exponential.

With your generous support, we anticipate that the first teacher training workshop will be held at the Thuan An Center for the Hearing Impaired in Binh Duong province, South Vietnam in Summer, 2010.

MEDIA COVERAGE

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

Lions Club District Newspaper (pdf)

Northwest Asian Weekly

Voice of America (Vietnamese)

Tri Delta Sorority Alumni Newsletter Fall 2009 (pdf)