FM System with Learning Disability

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Answer

I apologize in advance because I will be answering your questions with more questions. You state that the student has a Specific Learning Disability. How was that diagnosed? If the child has difficulty with language learning and seems to need assistance with understanding and processing verbal instruction, I am surprised that CAPD was ruled out. This raises questions in my mind about the assessment tools used both for LD and for APD. I suspect there may be some inconsistencies in the findings or perhaps some tools were overlooked that might have been more sensitive to the problems this child is having. The simplest answer to your basic question is that there is plenty of research that demonstrates the effectiveness of an FM system for enhancing a child's ability to intake the auditory signal from the teacher in the classroom. An FM system overcomes distance and reverberation and would help absolutely anyone, so there is no justification for thinking that it wouldn't help this particular child in some way. What is more important to me, however, is whether the enhancement of the signal with an FM system is the only thing that this child might need. That is a question I cannot address without more specific information about which tests have been used to assess this child and what the results are.

Dr. Deborah Moncrieff is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in Pediatric Audiology and Auditory Processing Disorders. Her research is focused on assessment tools for APD, the prevalence of APD in school-age children, and brain mechanisms underlying APD across the lifespan.