One of the priorities for the Global Foundation For Children With Hearing Loss in the next year is to enhance audiology services in three targeted provinces. These provinces have teachers and therapists who have been trained by the Global Foundation in auditory-verbal practice and some audiology technicians. Such audiology services would complement services provided in Ho Chi Minh City and would enable families living in the provinces to get more timely care for their children with hearing loss. It would also allow teachers and therapists a way to respond more quickly to changes in a child’s hearing than currently is the case.
This summer, the Global Foundation For Children With Hearing Loss will focus on this key goal as we engage in our sixth Summer Training Program. We will help the audiology technicians enrolled in our program continue to develop their pediatric audiology skills. During the practicum, we have a host of children coming in for testing, hearing aid fitting, and verification.
This summer’s Audiology program overlaps with the AV Therapy, Early Intervention, and AV Classroom training programs. Though these Education workshops don’t officially start for a few more weeks, the Vietnamese participants are planning to arrive early.
Those in the Classroom program will engage together in some of the pre-work that has been assigned to them. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese EI/Therapy participants will be working together on the Master Handbook of Global Foundation materials and presentations that they have taken initiative to create. This Master Handbook will be their guide as they train others in Vietnam about the Global Foundation curriculum moving forward. So, there is lots of motivation and energy flowing around these parts.
Our most advanced-level Vietnamese teachers/therapists and Vietnamese audiology technicians will be enrolled in our program this July. We also have several Vietnamese professionals who have been invited to observe for various reasons but are not at the advanced level to participate.
Children under 6 years old will engage in our Therapy/EI/Classroom practicum sessions every day along with their parents. A host of children will be seen during the Audiology practicum with some getting new hearing aids. These children are all supported by the audiology technicians and teachers enrolled in our Vietnam Program which ensures they will receive the ongoing support they need to develop listening and spoken language.
We also have a Parent Night scheduled that will involve families and other caregivers who will come to learn about how to support their children at home.
Let’s get this started!