Da Nang now has a number of audiology centres and special schools which help local children with congenital deafness and poor hearing.  They offer speech-language therapy to the children, after they have received hearing aids or cochlear implants, to help them catch up on speech delays.

The speech-language therapy has played a vital role in the treatment of children with hearing impairment. It was introduced to Viet Nam 5 years ago by Ms Paige Stringer, founder and executive director of the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss.

Ms Stringer said, “I was born with bilateral profound hearing loss and have worn hearing aids since I was 11 months old.  Early identification and intervention enabled my listening and spoken language to develop.  During my academic life, I studied and was well-integrated with my friends with good hearing”. 

Phuong Thuy, a young girl from Cam Le District, wearing hearing aids

During a volunteer visit to Southeast Asia in 2008, Ms Stringer noticed a severe lack of hearing aids and knowledge about hearing loss, as well as limitations in training teachers who specialise in teaching children with hearing impairment.  This had a great influence on the future of thousands of children with congenital deafness and poor hearing.

After her visit, Ms Stringer established the non-profit Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss in 2009.  She then introduced her therapy to Viet Nam.  It spans audiology, early intervention, speech language pathology, and auditory-verbal deaf education for audiology technicians, medical professionals, teachers, therapists, and families.  The aim is to help Viet Nam identify and narrow gaps in the system of support for children with hearing loss.

In 2010, Ms Stringer started to give assistance to the Thuan An Education Centre for Disabled Children in Binh Duong Province where children under 6 are taught speech and language.  In the summer of the same year, 10 audiology experts from the USA organised an audiology training course for 85 teachers from 34 special schools and centres for children with hearing impediments in the southern region.  Similar courses were then opened for attendees from Da Nang and the provinces of Quang Ngai and Thua Thien-Hue. 

Last November, the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss and Da Nang’s Tuong Lai (Future) Special School jointly held a training course on paediatric audiology for 32 teachers and audiologists from special schools for children with hearing impediments across central localities.

Ms Stringer said, “I want to help children with hearing loss by giving them access to some of the education methods that I was fortunate to have experienced”.