by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A hard of hearing teacher wrote:
It seems to me that loop systems and FM systems are better for students than for teachers. How would either benefit a teacher? It seems that those systems are set up to have one person (usually the teacher) wear the microphone and the sound gets to the students. But how does that work when there are 25 kids and the teacher is hard of hearing?
This is a basic problem with assistive devices such as room loops and FM systems. They are made to go from one hearing person to one or more hard of hearing people, not from many hearing people to one hard of hearing person like you need.
If you had a small classroom, it is possible to add 2 or 3 microphones scattered around the room all feeding into a loop system for example—but the students still must pass the microphones around for this to be truly effective.
One solution (and one that was specifically designed for a hard of hearing teacher by the way) is to use a PockeTalker, neckloop and a super-directional microphone. I have found this combination is quite effective. Typically, I use mine at noisy conferences, but it also works well in quiet situations as well. You might want to try it and see how well it works for you.
If you are going to use this system with your hearing aids, you need hearing aids with t-coils. Then you need a PockeTalker, a neckloop and the super-directional microphone I love.
If you don’t wear hearing aids, you can skip the neckloop and add earbuds instead. I often do this as it works wonderfully well for my particular hearing loss.
Note: when you switch your hearing aids to t-coil mode, much of the background noise in the classroom is blocked out. You only hear what enters the directional microphone. Compared to just using your hearing aids, the difference is quite dramatic.
Hi, I am an adult student who is considering a teaching career but was a bit ‘scared’ due to my hearing loss(ca. 30% mid/high tones due to perforated eardrums and neural damage = tinnitus as an infant). I hav tried hearing aids but found that they amplified background noise as well. I hav trouble hearing with background noise and the softly-spoken sounds like “s”, “f”, and “th”. Words that rhyme also give me trouble. This site has excellent advice and makes me feel much more confident about teaching. I have coped well to date (top 10% of students in my courses worldwide + published essays in English, History and Classics). I am now doing my Honours in English Literature. I have experience in Science, Library work, and archiving. My family are really good with my hearing loss, but sometimes we all have to laugh at my mistakes! I used to be embarrassed about my loss as a youth, but now I am just up-front about it with people and they normally speak more clearly. Great site!
Jamie, I don’t think you should let a hearing loss get in the way of your career path. I am a Senior Elementary Ed. major with a profound hearing loss. I student teach at the moment and only struggle occasionally. The good thing about working with the students is they use a lot of body language and hand written communication that it makes teaching easier. If you are passionate about teaching than I think you should not let anything stop you.
I totally agree with you but with kindergarten it’s extremely difficult with teaching their sounds and listening to one child with 25 in the background. I struggle with this issue and the administration knows my problem but doesn’t take it into consideration. It’s extremely frustrating. I’m trying to get something that will help me. 🙂
I use a phonak fm system that allows me to have 9 microphones wirelessly connected to it (the main little mic, and then 8 portable microphones). It works great for me. A hearing loss is a hearing loss though, so I still need to rely on my speechreading skills to be sure to catch important words
LM
Does this require wearing a neck loop? I’m so confused about the technology and don’t know where to go or what to buy!
Hi Cyndi:
If you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, then you’d wear a neckloop (or Music Links). If you don’t, then you can wear earbuds. Just remember, nothing is perfect, but they are way better than nothing. If you want to contact me privately, I can help you find a good solution that will work for you. My contact information is at the bottom of every page on the Center’s website.
Cordially,
Neil
What do you mean earbuds? Like you plug into your Mp3 player? I am a college professor who is losing her hearing. I don’t have hearing aids. So I’d need earbuds that plug into your system and what else? TU dlarue@lsus.edu
Hi Dorie:
Yes, earbuds are earphones that go in your ears, as opposed to headphones that fit over your ears and are held in place via a headband.
If you are wanting to use what I am suggesting, you need a personal amplifier such as the PockeTalker 2.0 and a super-directional microphone. The PockeTalker comes with earbuds and headphones, but you can use your favorite earbuds (like I do) or your favorite headphones (like I also do), depending on the situation. Just be sure the earbuds or headphones have a standard 1/8″ (3.5 mm) stereo (3 pole), not the 4 pole plug for earbuds that come with a microphone.
You can get the PockeTalker 2.0 at https://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/pocketalker-2-0/ and the super-directional microphone at https://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/super-directional-handheld-microphone/
Cordially,
Neil
After teaching at an elementary school for 10 years and finally having thecourage for asking for accommodations I am more marginalized than ever. I am being bullied by teachers, have lost my quiet teaching space was moved to a closet space next to sped sped students with intellectual disabilities .I have been reassigned to teach Kindergarten in a push in situation after upper grade teachers made my life very difficult . Students like me and I do not have any performance issues but the younger newer colleagues do not like me. My principal has conceded that I am working in a hostile environment. How do seek a transfer and protect myself against “discriminatory ” practices?
I am a hard of hearing teacher at the Middle School level. My issue is not that I don’t have the availability of devices to help me. I have a pocket talker and even a wireless microphone that can be passed around. My issue is one of embarrassment. I don’t like to feel “singled out” as THAT teacher who needs help. Any tips for overcoming my own personal embarrassment?
Hi James:
Maybe you need to answer some questions to see what the underlying cause is. For example, ask yourself lots of “why” questions as you drill down to the root of the problem. To get you started, ask why are you embarrassed by your hearing loss? Why are you not comfortable with it? Is it because people have made fun of you in the past over your hearing loss? Are you worried that people will think less of you because you have a hearing loss? Are you worried because of the stigma of having a hearing loss? Do you not know what to do if you can’t understand someone?
For example, if you have plan A, B, C and D, then if plan A doesn’t work you go right on to Plan B and so on. That way your anxiety over the communication problem doesn’t escalate. You know you have alternative methods to solve the problem.
Here is how you may approach it.
Plan A. Ask the person to repeat the question or comment.
Plan B. If you still didn’t get it ask them to rephrase it in different words.
Plan C. Tell them exactly what you need them to do so you can understand them. It might be get closer or speak a bit slower–simple things like that.
Plan D. Ask them to write down key words or the whole question. (Carry a notebook and pen for just this purpose.)
Plan E. Ask someone nearby to “interpret” what the person is asking. Be sure to pick a person that you know you can readily hear and understand. Some people are so easy to understand and others are near impossible.
Are your students similarly embarrassed to accommodate your needs? Or are they quite willing to do what you need in order for you to hear them? If you are confident and open about your hearing loss (no embarrassment), then this will go a long ways towards eliminating embarrassment in those you are talking with. This is especially true if you tell them one or two things you need them to do so that you can hear them better–assuming that what you ask is not embarrassing them too.
If you are open and have a sense of humor towards you hearing loss, this puts others at ease too and your hearing loss and its accommodations becomes a non-issue.
Cordially,
Neil
You’ve made some good points but it’s also obvious you’ve never worked with a large number of elementary or middle school students. The little ones get frustrated with having to repeat themselves, especially after 3 times and it triggers their emotions. They can feel embarrassed and shut down. They can feel frustrated and yell, totally changing the teaching moment to lose its essence. Middle schoolers are going through the normal phase of distancing themselves from adults that are frustrating to them. It’s a natural evolutionary process for them to often feel impatient and quite egocentric when asked a question in class or to repeat every thing they say 2, 3 or more times. Some shut down, some laugh so that it becomes a joke, etc. Even though we hard of hearing educators know how to lighten the mood and explain our disability and adaptions in an easygoing, lighthearted manner, it doesn’t always prevent the students’ emotionally development from exacerbating the problem. Unlike other disabilities, ours is one that usually requires the speaker the responsibility to accommodate us by constantly repeating. My own teen son who has been wonderful adapting to my needs all of his life now becomes a jerk about repeating. So please don’t simplify and assume quite so much. It is emotionally distressful for us to bear the burden of constantly triggering emotions in young people by the never ending requests to repeat.
Hi School C:
You are right–I haven’t worked with school aged kids much. But it’s obvious that you haven’t understood the real needs of hard of hearing people.
The key is to realize that communication is a two-way street. The students NEED to communicate in a way that the hard of hearing teacher can understand. And just as importantly, the teacher has to communicate to the students exactly what she needs in order to understand them.
When this is effectively done, there shouldn’t be a need to repeat things several times. My daughter was a teacher and later the principal of a Montessori school. She also has a severe hearing loss. She taught her “kids” how to communicate so she could understand them.
When this is not done, I agree with you that the kinds can “shut down”, get exasperated, etc. That is why it is so important to work on making rules that work for both the hard of hearing teacher AND the students–and then for both to follow those rules.
Cordially,
Neil
Fascinating article–I found this website through a google search and will keep looking through it. I’m looking for advice about my rights as a teacher’s aide in a public school where students will likely be wearing masks next year, making it really hard for me to hear since I rely on lipreading. It’s been ok this year on Zoom but I’m really worried about next year. Can a school fire me for not being able to hear kids when they’re wearing masks? and do they legally have to help me with accommodations like the pocket mike you’re recommending?
Hi Stephanie:
As I understand the ADA, they have to make reasonable accommodations for your hearing loss–and a PockeTalker and microphone are certainly reasonable. If they tried to fire you because you can’t hear because they refuse to provide reasonable accommodations, I think you’d have a case to sue them.
Cordially,
Neil
Due to Meniere’s I have significant hearing loss in left and mild loss in right. When we returned to in person school in March but with masks, it was nightmare for me(high school). I requested to continue to teach virtually but that was denied. District provided clear masks for students which students refused to wear. District ordered a PA system but the feedback from Meet made it unusable. Originally we were returning with only unvaccinated required to wear masks. The district is now wanting me to try the PA system again but having to pass a mic around I think will be met with little enthusiasm by students. Does the setup in this article work better than what I’m being offered? Or is continued FMLA/retirement my best options?
Hi Dottie:
First, a bit of unsolicited advice. If you want to get rid of your Meniere’s, you’d do well to read my comprehensive article on the subject at https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ and act accordingly.
Using the PA system and a pass-around microphone would work better than just one microphone in the classroom. It will help avoid the feedback as the gain on the microphone won’t have to be so high. However, passing the mic around the room is a pain and takes time which slows down how much material you can cover in a given class if you or your students ask a lot of questions.
Thus, the system I describe can work much better as there won’t be any feedback if you use a PockeTalker and neckloop, and you use the t-coils in your hearing aids (assuming you have them). You just aim the microphone at the student you want to hear. But it is not quite that simple as each student has a different voice and is at a different distance from you. So you tie up both your hands–one holding and pointing the microphone, and the other on the volume control on the PockeTalker so you can instantly adjust the volume to what you need. But it works quite well with that caveat.
You’d have to try it out to see how well it works for you ears and in your classroom.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi,
Can you please explain how the directional microphone works with the pocket talker and neck look?
I’m confused and would need to know where to purchase these items. Would the school provide them? I’m a hearing impaired teacher and enjoyed reading your advice here. Thank you.
Ellen O’Keefe
Hi Ellen:
You don’t say whether you have hearing aids or not, and if so, whether they have a t-coil setting or not. That makes a bit of a difference in what I’m going to tell you.
There are several ways to do things, but the easiest is to wear the PockeTalker around your neck on a lanyard. If you don’t have hearing aids, then you plug earbuds or earphones into the earphone jack and put them in/on your ears. You plug the directional microphone into the microphone jack and hold the microphone in one hand. Whenever you want to hear a student, just point the microphone at that student–and if he is across the room from you, turn up the volume on the PockeTalker so you can hear him better. Ditto for soft-spoken students. You are free to move around the classroom as you please.
If you have hearing aids with t-coils in them, instead of earbuds/earphones, you plug a neckloop into the earphone jack and wear it around your neck. Then switch your hearing aids to t-coil mode and the rest is the same as the above.
You can purchase all the items mentioned above from our website at
https://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/category/ald/.
The school should pay for the above equipment.
Cordially,
Neil