FM System?

I stumbled across a goldmine. Well, I believe it's a goldmine. I found a teen with APD's blog. It's good. And, she's linked to other really cool APD blogs. I can't believe I didn't find these sooner. After all my months of trying to find "good" ones, I guess I had to find one to find the others. I haven't even begun to read everything, but can't wait to learn some more perspective from these kids with APD.

One thing that tends to come up in these blogs, or APD talk, is an FM system. Since I haven't written a blog entry on this subject, I thought I'd do it now. FM systems are one option for helping eliminate background noise in the classroom. I have always wondered if Jared would benefit from this. He would wear some headphones and his teacher would have a small mic and he'd hear her more clearly. It's not for everyone. If Jared doesn't have difficulty with speech clarity, it might not work for him. We don't really know his specific APD profile right now, as he's so young. But, then again, I think... maybe this is the time to try something like this out... while he's in the younger grades so he doesn't feel as "different". Who am I kidding? Wearing a hearing device will probably make him feel awkward in any grade. Or, will it?


I found this blog entry for a sweet teen who wrote about her experience with it: "You’re thinking 'isn’t it awkward or embarrassing to have to go to the front of the classroom and make the teacher wear a microphone and you have to wear earplugs? What do the other kids say?' Well, yes. It is awkward and sort of embarrassing, but I’m getting over that. I try not to think about it during class, because if I let that bother me too much, it would be worse than not having it at all and the FM system would be hurting me rather than helping me. Yeah, I’ve had people make some comments to me and made me feel bad about it, weather they meant to or not. But I’m not letting it bother me too much. If I did, then like I said it would be hurting me more than it would be helping me." I like her perspective!

I'm going to continue to research and see what age is best to possibly try this out

Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.” Exodus 32:18 (NIV)