Quotes

Quotes from Carol Ann Flexer: Flexer, Carol Ann., Facilitating Hearing and Listening in Young Children. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, 1980 and revised 1999.

A 3-year study of sound-field amplification revealed the following preliminary results (Osborn, Graves, & Vonder-Embse, 1989): (p.107)
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The proportion of students requiring special services decreased after 3 ye ars with amplified classrooms;

Amplified kindergarten classes scored significantly higher on listening, language, and word analysis tests than did children in unamplified classrooms;

According to formal classroom observations, students in amplified classrooms had better on-task behaviors than students in unamplified classrooms;

As reported by principals, in amplified classrooms, there were fewer teacher absences due to fatigue and laryngitis;

Teachers in amplified kindergarten classrooms tended to use less repetition and rephrasing in their instruction'

The study began with 17 sound-field units; 3 years later, 47 units were in use because teachers wanted them, parents demanded that their children be placed in amplified classrooms, and administrators were convinced that student performance improved.

Based on information currently available, the following populations appear to benefit most from sound-field amplification: (pp.111-112)

1. Children with past and current histories of otitis media with effusion;

2. Children with unilateral hearing impairments;

3. Children with minimal sensorineural hearing impairments who do not wear hearing aids;

4. Children with central auditory processing or attention difficulties but with normal peripheral hearing sensitivity;

5. Preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders with normal hearing sensitivity who are in the crucial stages of developing academic competencies.

Three practical advantages of appropriately installed and functioning sound-filed equipment for target populations are that classroom amplification requires no overt cooperation from the child, the technology is not stigmatizing for any particular child, and equipment function or malfunction is immediately obvious to everyone in the room (Anderson, 1991).

If speech is being used as the means of communication, instruction, or intervention, there is no instance where hearing does not matter. Unless the instructor is able to serve as the amplifier by speaking in a full, clear voice into the ear of the child at all times, some form of amplification technology will be necessary. No hearing impairment is insignificant, no age is too young, and no disability is too severe to consider the use of amplification. (p.130)

For more information, go to: http://www.listen-up.org/oral/flexer.htm