Lending an ear to children

The center also shoulders the responsibility to guide the establishment of provincial, municipal and county-level rehabilitation centers for deaf children.

It provides not only devices and money, but also technicians and training to those centers.

Audiologists and speech rehabilitaters were rare in China in the past, but efforts from both the government and society have resulted in the number of such professionals increasing, Hu says.

The center is often the nation's first to have up-to-date devices and innovative specialists, such as auditory verbal therapists. In 2009, the center helped the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security set the national certificate criteria for hearing-aid specialists, Hu adds.

In 2007, the World Health Organization chose the center to be one of its seven global collaborating centers for the prevention and rehabilitation of hearing impairment, to recognize the center's contribution.

The center's affiliated kindergarten innovatively takes in both ordinary children and children with hearing loss, so as to encourage the latter to lead a normal life.

A mother surnamed Zhou from Hebei province says she is pleased with her 3-year-old daughter's improvement in the center's kindergarten.

The center is also making more effort to help adults with hearing loss.

Related: Fading sound