Personal Assistive Listening Systems
Types of Assistive Listening Systems
- Soundfield
- Personal
- Toteable
Benefits
- Hearing aids alone do not improve speech recognition in noise
- Directional microphones on hearing aids improve speech perception by 6-8dB
- Reverberation decreases this improvement
- (Reverberation is when sounds bounce off hard surfaces in a room)
- Sound field systems improve the signal to noise ratio for ALL children by 8-10dB
- Personal Assistive Listening Systems (FM/DM Systems) improved speech perception in noise by 15-20dB
***The bottom line: Background noise is reduced!***
Personal Assistive Listening System Issues
- Need to assess students to determine need and benefit
- Speaker must talk into a microphone (Some settings make this difficult such as classroom discussions, lunchroom, recess, physical education)
- Equipment is quite expensive
- Equipment is fragile and breakdowns are quite common
- Daily listening checks and battery care
- Advantages of the personal assistive listening systems are hard to prove in:
- Quiet environments
- In settings where the speaker is a large distance from the hard of hearing student
- One-on-one settings
General Troubleshooting Tips
No sound from receiver
- Turn power switch on
- Recharge or replace batteries
- Check cords
No Signal Reception
- Turn power switch on
- Plug microphone into mic jack, not audio in
- Set receiver to FM or FM and hearing aid
- Turn up FM volume control
- Recharge or replace batteries in transmitter
- Check cord and microphone
Weak or Distorted Sound
- Recharge or replace batteries
- Check cord or hearing aid
- Turn up volume controls
- Clean wax from earmolds
Static, Intermittent Sound or Feedback
- Check cord or microphone
- Clean battery contacts
- Clean wax from earmolds
- Check for properly fitting earmolds
- Turn down volume controls
Charger-No Lights, Won’t Charge
- Plug charger into live wall socket
- Change wall sockets
- Place receiver and transmitter in charger properly
- Clean charge contacts
- Try different charge pocket if necessary
If you have tried several of the above and it still is not working properly contact the
Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
*** They will contact the educational audiologist for you! ***