Are your kids falling behind at school? Portable personal amplifiers could be a solution.
Many students with hearing problems — both diagnosed and undiagnosed — will lose valuable classroom time simply because they can’t hear.
In addition to the obvious problem of not comprehending the teacher’s lessons, there’s an additional (and very common) problem with hearing-impaired students losing focus due to excessive background noise and poor classroom acoustics.
Fortunately, there’s an affordable way for you to combat this problem!
Portable personal amplifiers are portable amplifiers that reduce background noise and focus kids’ attention on what they need to hear.
Here are two types of portable personal amplifiers that can help your kids learn more at school.
1. Portable Personal Amplifiers with Environmental Microphones
Some portable personal amplifiers like the Williams Sound PockeTalker use a condenser microphone to pick up nearby sounds and amplify them into a headset that the listener wears.
Many people with mild hearing impairment find the PockeTalker to be just what they need — an affordable alternative to hearing aids or more expensive wireless listening systems.
For students, a small amount of amplification may be all they need to hear lectures and participate in classroom discussions — especially if they can sit close to the teacher, or if their class meets in a seminar room.
PockeTalkers are particularly well-suited to small group discussions, since they don’t require a separate microphone for everyone in the group — just place the amplifier in a central location where every person can be heard.
One disadvantage of the PockeTalker is that the environmental microphone will pick up every sound in the room. In larger lecture halls with poor acoustics, this may make it more difficult to pick out what a single person is saying, especially if they are far away from the listener.
2. Portable Personal Amplifiers with Wireless Remote Microphones
For larger or noisier rooms, students may find portable personal amplifiers with wireless remote microphones to be more convenient.
These devices allow students to place a remote mic close to the speaker — or even to plug it into the audio output of an existing PA system. The microphone attaches to a transmitter which uses wireless FM technology to broadcast the speaker’s voice to an amplifier attached to the student’s headphones.
With the microphone close to the sound source, background noise is minimized, and the teacher’s voice is much clearer. What’s more, adding additional receivers allows multiple students to listen in on the same lecture.
Need More Sound Solutions for Assistive Listening?
These are only two of the many solutions AudioLink offers for hearing better in schools and other public places. Other options include personal wireless receivers, digital transceiver systems and much more.
Does your school have an existing listening system? What do you do to help your kids hear in school? Let us know in the comments!
