FM Systems

[MrsCrafty]

So today we had a meeting for DS and and he is officially under the deaf/hoh label. In 2 weeks we will meet with the district audiologist and she'll recommend an FM system(they said it'll probably be a speaker) Just wondering if anyone has experience, did your LO still keep their hearing aides in? DS has problems keeping his in I think because of all the background noise in the class. They're also going to start working with the teachers on visual cues for him.

[mibarra]

DD1 hasn't used one yet, but I have worked with children who wear them. The ones we use have a little 'boot' that goes on the end, kind of like a slightly bigger battery compartment. It will transmit the teachers voice directly to the hearing aid to overpower background noise. He will still other things, but he'll always hear the teacher speaking directly too him. It may actually help since he should be able to hear the teacher more clearly, making it more reinforcing to wear them. The kids I've worked with had no problem with theirs.

[MrsCrafty]

Well the deaf/hoh teacher said usually for his age they would do a speaker in the classroom instead of setting it up to go to his hearing aide? Hes in kindergarten.

[teacherpippi]

I have a speaker system in my classroom. It is wonderful. All the students really listen better with it.

I've had several different situations with speaker systems:

-A student with mild hearing loss (no hearing aides)
-A student with hearing aides and the "boot" the PP was talking about
-A student with hearing aides and speaker system (no boot)

I guess that doesn't help much, but every kid is so different!

[Suzi]

My friends dd uses one. Shes in 9th grade now. The hardest things as she has gotten older and has many more teachers is getting them to work with the system and her needs. Overall though the system has worked really well for her.

[jennyfa]

When I taught third grade, we had the type the attached to the hearing aids for one of my kids. They were great. He liked to proudly proclaim "I can even hear you teaching when I'm in the bathroom!"

The Kindergarten teacher had a speaker system in her classroom, although I don't believe that the child had hearing aids so that was why they used that one. With a good teacher, it shouldn't be a problem. One question I would be sure to ask is what happens when/if he switches classrooms? Might not be a big deal in Kindergarten, but when he's in first grade I imagine he'd be going to specials (gym, music, art, whatever) and not having the speaker in those settings could be bothersome for him.

[MrsCrafty]

Originally Posted by jennyfa When I taught third grade, we had the type the attached to the hearing aids for one of my kids. They were great. He liked to proudly proclaim "I can even hear you teaching when I'm in the bathroom!" The Kindergarten teacher had a speaker system in her classroom, although I don't believe that the child had hearing aids so that was why they used that one. With a good teacher, it shouldn't be a problem. One question I would be sure to ask is what happens when/if he switches classrooms? Might not be a big deal in Kindergarten, but when he's in first grade I imagine he'd be going to specials (gym, music, art, whatever) and not having the speaker in those settings could be bothersome for him.

He does go to specialist(that's what they call them at his school), they're going to talk to teachers about what could work. In computer class he has a wireless speaker and gym so they'll both be able to use the mic.
thanks for the replies

[Suzi]

I remember one time the teacher forgot to turn the mic off and went in the hallway and was *****ing about having to accommodate so my friends did had to hear it all

[jennyfa]

Going to the bathroom with the mic on was always my biggest fear. And it would be even worse with the speaker for the WHOLE class to hear!