More ? on FM

[Guest guest]

OKay, forgive me in advance. I am sure these are really stupid

questions, but all this stuff technology has my head spinning!

Background...My ten year old has a reverse cookie bite loss in one

ear, which means he has moderate low frequency loss and then

normal/minimal in the mid frequencies, and then moderate/severe in

high frequency. His other ear is a reverse slope, with moderate low

frequency loss only, rising to normal at 2000hz and above.

He has only gotten hearing aids in the last year, and has not become

a successful user of aids yet. He does say that they help him in

some circumstances, but won't wear them to school. He recently

tested with lower speech perception with his aids on in quiet, than

he had unaided. This led us to speculate that his molds were blocking

more than they were helping in ideal listening conditions. So, we

discussed all this with the audi. We ordered a more open fitting ear

mold and put a vent hole in the mold. Usually this is not

recommended for low frequency loss. We did aided speech perception

testing and his scores exactly the same as unaided. (of course his

unaided speech perception goes way down in less than perfect

listening conditions). My son loves the new molds and says they are

way more comfortable than his original set.

The other thing that has happened is that the school started using a

sound field system in his classroom. This has been a wonderful

solution for my son. Thus prompting my exploration into FM systems

again...

So, I asked my audi for a trial. Since he does not wear his hearing

aids to school, we decided to try a stand alone receiver. We have

the easy link transmitter. We have been using it in the car and for

the television etc. He really likes it, and I think will continue to

find it useful in the challenging listening conditions. He still

will not wear the ear piece to school. What I am wondering is this.

Maybe it makes more sense to get the FM boots for his hearing aids.

I think if his hearing gets worse, then he will need to wear the aids

to school. But given that we have had such a difficult time with

getting the programming right on the hearing aids, I am wondering if

we had the boots would it be possible to bypass the hearing aid

amplification and just use the FM feature some of the time? Is there

a negative to having the boots for the hearing aids, instead of the

stand alone? Maybe it is better that he have two seperate assistive

listening devices, and more flexibility about when to use each??

I do need to figure some sort of a solution, as next year we will hit

middle school and the installed sound field will not be an option as

he will change rooms 4 or more times a day. I hope the school will

still be cooperative about providing what we need, but I think it

will not be their priority to preserve my sons privacy. And I

already experienced last year what happens when we try to force the

issue. Way to much drama! I say that sarcastically, but really my

son just shut down and became withdrawn, uncooperative and feudal.

Not his usual nature at all, but he just could not cope with the

stress of a new school and new hearing aids, etc.

I am thinking of asking to return the set up that we have now, and

then ask the audi to give us a trial with the smartlink and the

boots. I like the programmability and also the blue tooth

capability. My cell phone right now is blue tooth, and I plan on

getting that set up as a kid plan on T-mobile for my family to use,

the next time I get a new phone. (I am a realtor, so usually get a

new phone every year or so, and am having complete smartphone envy,

so am itching to make my next upgrade!) I know, just TMI...

So, any perspective is appreciated, as always.