PRESS RELEASE

July 11, 2006

 

USAID Launches Vietnamese Language Books for Children Who Are Deaf

With support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the NGO Pearl S Buck International and its partner the Training and Development Center for Special Education translated, printed and will distribute 5,000 Vietnamese copies of the book Helping Children Who are Deaf.  This book was developed with USAID funds, by the Hesperian Foundation, in partnership with families of children who are deaf or cannot hear well, and has been field tested in 17 countries. This is the first time it has been reprinted in Vietnamese.

Helping Children Who are Deaf  supports parents and other caregivers in building the communication skills of babies and young children. Packed with activities on how to foster language learning through both sign and oral approaches, this groundbreaking book explains ways to adapt activities and exercises for both a child's specific abilities and needs, and a family's unique circumstances. The book also explores how deafness affects a child's ability to learn language, as well as develop mentally and socially.

Three thousand copies of Helping Children Who are Deaf will be distributed for free by the Training and Development Center for Special Education (TDCSE). The remained 2,000 copies will be sold to help raise money to cover reporting costs. In total, USAID has contributed $383,428 to this project.

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