Speech Perception Benefits From Sound Field FM Amplification

¹ The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
² University of South Florida, Tampa
³ The University of Mississippi, University, MS

lmendel{at}memphis.edu

The effects of sound field FM amplification (SFA) on speech perception performance were investigated in this 2-year study. Kindergarten children with normal hearing were randomly assigned to a treatment group, which comprised 7 classrooms that had SFA systems installed in them, and to a control group, which comprised another 7 classrooms that did not have any amplification available. The children were followed from the beginning of kindergarten through the end of first grade. Improvements in speech perception performance were measured for both groups, with the treatment group demonstrating progress much sooner than the control group. However, this difference was not apparent by the end of the study. The only significant difference measured between the treatment and control groups was that the treatment group performed significantly better than the control group when the stimuli were presented with SFA for the treatment group and without SFA for the control group. The teachers who used SFA enjoyed using amplification in their classrooms and felt that their students enjoyed using it as well.

Key Words: sound field FM amplification, speech perception, acoustic measurements

Submitted on September 23, 2003
Accepted on October 9, 2003

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. B. Larsen, A. Vega, and J. E. Ribera The Effect of Room Acoustics and Sound-Field Amplification on Word Recognition Performance in Young Adult Listeners in Suboptimal Listening Conditions Am J Audiol, June 1, 2008; 17(1): 50 - 59. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]