Iowa group helps train audiologists in China

A team of hearing experts from the University of Iowa is in China, helping train a new crop of audiologists. U-of-I student Jennifer Reside spent two weeks in Chengdu and has just returned to attend classes, but the rest of the team is still in China teaching audiologists.Reside is a 24-year-old Cedar Rapids native who is a senior undergraduate student in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She says there are about 26-million people in China who have some degree of hearing loss, but the nation has only about 25 audiologists to try and treat them.The U-of-I is helping launch China’s first graduate program in audiology at a University in Chengdu. Reside was in China as an observer on the project, being led by some of her professors. She does -not- speak Chinese, outside of a few words, but enjoyed her two-week stay.Dr. Ruth Bentler, a U-of-I professor of speech pathology and audiology, is teaching a course on hearing aids in the “Audiology in China” study abroad program.