Hearing aids are not just for old people, or even just for people with impaired hearing. Some students need help hearing in the classroom.
Many people realize that if a child can’t see the blackboard in the classroom, they will have difficulties learning. But the same holds true for hearing, and there are many reasons why a child might have problems hearing the teacher or classmates when they speak. Some children do have hearing impairments, such as only being able to hear with one ear. But other conditions also affect hearing comprehension. For example, students on the autistic spectrum may have difficulty filtering out the distracting noises in their surroundings. Others simply find it hard to process speech. Phonak, a hearing aid manufacturer, has a product that addresses these problems. The teacher uses a special microphone that transmits sounds directly to a wireless speaker in the student’s ear. By concentrating just on the sound of the teacher’s speech, it makes it easier for students to concentrate on that without the distractions of ambient noises. Think of it as glasses for the student’s ears.