soundfield, FM etc

March 26, 2004

Soundfields can be beneficial to all kids in the class, hearing and ones with

less than perfect hearing. However, it can only give aobut 10dB increase over

the background noise. This is enough for kids with mild to moderate losses,

but kids with more severe losses need a personal FM because it can give them 20+

db signal to noise ratio. My daughter used a soundfield from 5K to 3rd grade.

It worked well for her despite the fact her loss is mod- moderately severe. We

didn't have the choice of personal FM because her aids did not have direct audio

input and we loved the aids. All her teachers loved it, used it even when she

was absent, kids loved it, and it was an amazing classroom management tool -

kids were quieter and better focused.

The one area we found it really helped Maggie was to provide the auditory

background. She knew what was going on in the classroom because she could hear

the teacher talking to other children. This is the incidental learning thing

but to a higher degree. For instance, she would know time was almost up

because the teacher said to a child across the room, you need to get working,

we only have 10 more minutes to work on this. Or we have lunch in 15 minutes,

we need to work hard. She could sit int he classroom and not expend a lot of

energy to understand what was going on. We got to third grade, and her teacher

wouldn't use the soundfiled much. So Maggie had to constantly look around to

see what was happening, she couldn't always tell just by looking and she felt

isolated like she was in a little bubble and as a result, her behavior was

terrible. We went around and around with the teacher, I finally asked her to

" try it our way " and the way all the previous teacher's had done it and wear/use

the soundfield all day every day. After two days she called and with much

chagrin said that I was right, she was seeing a totally different child. We

went ahead at that point and bought digitals and a microlink.

So depending on the makeup of the class, a soundfield could be beneficial.

Little kids can use all the auditory input they can get. And the sound field

doesn't amplify everything, just the teacher's voice. in GA

March 29, 2004

,

My son has both systems and prefers the soundfield pretty much 99%

over the FM system. He complains that he can't hear his friends next

to him with the FM on the CI, due to the sound mixing and that he

doesn't get all the info when kids talk to the teacher. He has been

wearing it lately, much to his dislike, to see if he can get used to

it. His behavior has gotten a little shakey since we have been using

the FM as well, and I think it is frustration at missing the

classmates conversing. He is bugging me to go back to the soundfield

system and I think I am going to let him if he is happy and hears

better with it.

Elaine

March 29, 2004