The winners of the 9th annual Model Educators of the Hearing Impaired were announced on Sept. 28. Lai Chi-min, a teacher from the Children’s Hearing Foundation in Yilan County, brought an eight-year-old girl named Chen Chen-yu who has severe hearing loss to attend the function. The two of them performed Chinese comic dialogue on stage together. Chen, who has cochlear implants in her ears, spoke with impeccable elocution and rapidly spun off comic dialogue passages, making for a consummate performance that astonished the entire audience.

Coinciding with Teachers’ Day in Taiwan, 10 teachers were chosen to be part of the Model Educators of the Hearing Impaired Awards on Sept. 28. Lai, who currently serves as a teacher at the Children’s Hearing Foundation, was among the winners.

Lai says that Chen has severe hearing loss in both her ears and was unable hear any sounds prior to coming to the foundation. After getting cochlear implants at the age of two, Chen began receiving hearing therapy and playing educational games at the foundation. In the beginning, she was only able to mumble a few unintelligible sounds, but now she is able to express herself in the same way that the average person does, and can even perform comic dialogue with perfect pronunciation.

Room for improvement is greatly increased when a child’s hearing impairment is discovered, treated and aided early on, Lai says, adding that the key to making smooth improvements lies in whether the parents are devoted and care enough about helping their hearing-impaired child.(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)

第九屆模範聽障教育教師遴選九月二十八日出爐，來自宜蘭縣雅文兒童聽語文教育基金會的賴紀閩老師帶領著八歲的重度聽損兒童陳貞諭一同出席，兩人還在台上表演相聲。戴著人工電子耳的陳貞諭字正腔圓、快速流利地說出相聲橋段，精湛表現驚艷全場。

九月二十八日是教師節，模範聽障教育教師遴選出十名優秀聽障教育教師。目前服務於雅文基金會的賴紀閩是其中一名獲獎教師。

賴紀閩說，貞諭自幼雙耳重度聽損，進入基金會前完全聽不到任何聲音，二歲時開刀植入人工電子耳後，在基金會協助下接受遊戲教學的聽語復健，從一開始只能發出「切切」、「耶耶」的聲音，到現在表達能力與平常人完全無異，甚至可以字正腔圓地為大家說相聲。

賴紀閩說，聽障兒只要早期發現、早期接受治療、協助，獲得改善的機率就大幅增加，父母親的投入與關注心力，也是聽障兒能否順利改善的關鍵。

（自由時報記者甘芝萁）