Around 11,000 hearing-impaired children in the northern city of Nam Dinh received free health check-ups on March 28.

The charitable activity was co-organised by the local children’s hospital and the city’s Department of Education and Training.

Instructing a child with hearing impairment to play a game

Doctor Nguyen Tuyet Xuong, head of the hospital’s ear-nose-throat department, cited the fact that Vietnam has an average of about 1.7 million newborns each year, 7,000 of whom are at risk of innate deafness.

Being unable to hear impedes the cognitive development of children who cannot communicate with others. More seriously, if their impairment is not promptly detected and treated, they can become permanently deaf, Xuong said.

Hearing aids and sign language are currently the main tools for the deaf to communicate. The latter is more widely used worldwide, proving highly effective and easily used.

Vietnam has more than 1 million hearing impaired people, including over 400,000 children of school age. The country houses 70 schools or centres that cater for people with hearing problems, and these are mainly found in big cities.

Source: VNA