Family event for World Hearing Day

15/04/2024

On World Hearing Day, Sunday 3 March, MCRI and RCH hosted the VicCHILD Family Day to celebrate the journeys and achievements of deaf and hard of hearing children.

Around 180 researchers, clinicians and VicCHILD stakeholders attended the event, including children and families participating in the Victorian Childhood Hearing Longitudinal Databank. The event celebrated the contributions of VicCHILD families to the impacts of the MCRI Hearing Research program, as well as the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program’s 20^th year of providing newborn hearing screening in Victoria. 

After the formal presentation and cake-cutting, families mingled with researchers during morning tea, with poster-viewing, roaming magic, face-painting, and art and craft. To commemorate the occasion, VicCHILD children created a VicCHILD tree with drawings of their faces and quotes on ‘what I want to be when I grow up’. 

World Hearing Day was also an opportunity to premiere a new video showcasing one of our VicCHILD participants and his family. Hasas’ hearing loss was picked up in routine newborn hearing screening, after which he and his family met Dr Valerie Sung. Watch the video (and count his running medals!) below. 

 Learn more about the VicCHILD project.