Education for hearing-impaired children improved
The Intergenerational Deaf Education Outreach (IDEO) project has enabled hearing-impaired children from underprivileged families to access essential early education that boost their full growth.
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From 2011 to 2016, it provided home-based sign language lessons for 255 hearing-impaired children under six years old in Hanoi , Thai Nguyen, Quang Binh, and Ho Chi Minh City .
It also helped train hundreds of hearing teachers and people in the use of sign language.
The project also launched an interactive website ( http://ideo.org.vn ) to provide online sign language learning videos, sign language vocabulary, games, and other materials on deaf education for hearing-impaired children and their families, educators and the public.
A series of short sign language videos is expected to be broadcast on the national education channel (VTV7) to reach out to a wider audience.
The project was reviewed by the Ministry of Education and Training and the World Bank (WB) in Hanoi on June 16.
Most of hearing-impaired children in Vietnam do not have access to early childhood education and their parents lack professional support, said Achim Fock, the World Bank’s Acting Country Director for Vietnam .
According to him, the positive results of IDEO affirm that the support of learning in schools with trained hearing and hearing-impaired teachers and sign language interpreters is essential for the hearing-impaired children to develop to their full potential.
Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia said that the IDEO project has opened a new and appropriate method to teach sign language for hearing-impaired children and also strengthened the participating schools and other relevant organisations in supporting education for hearing-impaired children in Vietnam .
There are about 15,500 hearing-impaired children in Vietnam.
