FM Set-up

Since Miss Kat will be attending a public school in the fall, we had to go in yesterday, to the school district that oversees services for students with special needs, and have her evaluated for an FM. They have to prove that she needs one before they provide it.

So, they started with a simple bilateral check of her thresholds. She was at 15-20 db across the board. Very good! (On a side note, she heard the highest frequencies when I did not. That is a cause for a bit of concern. Miss Kat has been telling me that I need to get my hearing checked. Turn out, she might be right!)

Next they did single syllable words in quiet. Miss Kat scored a 94%. Then they piped in multi-talker babble (sound of people talking around her). They gave her another list of single syllable words with a 0 SNR. That means the words she was listening for were at the exact same volume as the background noise. Her score then dropped to 42%. That is a huge difference. Finally, they tested Miss Kat in the noise again, but this time they used an FM system. Her score went back up to 88%. That is PLENTY of justification for an FM!

On a quasi related note. Miss Kat just received her Roger Pen (for home)! It is the new FM system she will be using at home. We love it! She hears much better with it and we haven't had the kinds of problems that plagued us with her last FM (static, inference, disconnecting, etc.) She is always excited to use it, and we even took it to church. We love the group discussion setting. It is awesome!