The Global Foundation For Children With Hearing Loss is starting the 2014 new year off with a bang and we are looking forward to sharing the highlights with you. Audiologists Myriam De La Asuncion, Joan Hewitt, and Jane Madell, auditory verbal therapists Sally Tannenbaum, Erin Thompson, and Sherri Vernelson, and surgeon Jay Rubinstein are joining Paige Stringer in Vietnam for the Global Foundation’s fourth Mobile Mission program which all gets started on January 6 in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Mobile Missions are one piece of the Global Foundation’s multi-faceted Vietnam Deaf Education Program. The program, now in its fourth year, is building capacity amongst Vietnamese medical teams, therapists, teachers, and audiology technicians to help young children with hearing loss make use of hearing technology and learn to communicate through listening and spoken language. There are no formal training programs in audiology, early intervention, deaf education, or auditory-verbal practice in Vietnam. The Vietnamese professionals who work in these areas have asked for additional training. Our Vietnam Deaf Education Program addresses this need. Developed by Global Foundation professionals in collaboration with the Vietnamese, we work to fill gaps in expertise and prepare the Vietnamese to not only support the children they serve but also to train and collaborate with each other as to elevate the system of support for these children with hearing loss and their families.
The January 2014 Mobile Mission takes place in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Lai Thieu over a three-week period. We’ll start at Children’s Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City where Vietnamese therapists who have been engaged in our program for the past few years will continue to progress their learning in the Global Foundation’s curriculum. Live therapy sessions between Vietnamese therapists and young children and their families are scheduled to provide opportunity for feedback and coaching by Erin and Sherri. Meanwhile, the Global Foundation’s audiologists will focus training on pediatric audiology testing and cochlear implant mapping with audiology technicians. And, Jay will lead the doctors through cochlear implant surgical procedures.
We’ll be posting stories about Vietnam,and the Mobile Mission on this blog in the weeks to come. Please join us!