Two Teens Text Their Viewpoints on FM Systems

Some teenagers with hearing loss unfortunately seem get to a point where they view their FM systems as too much trouble. The FM system just adds to the already uncomfortable feeling of being different than everyone else. It takes so much extra time, effort, and personal responsibility to tote it around from class to class. Poor teacher in-service training and/or inadequate FM system procedures are wonderful at ensuring that usage problems plague the FM system all school year long.

This story shares a part of a text message exchange between two teens with hearing loss on the subject of FM systems in school. As we were walking our dog Norton one evening, our daughter Nicole was texting away in an exchange to try to convince another teen to look at her FM system in a new light. The other teen had pretty much decided to abandon her use of the FM system in school. As they finally agreed to disagree, they traded numbered lists with their closing arguments.

Here’s the other teen’s text message list of reasons against using her FM system:

1. When u have free time on doing work but u cant focus cuz the teacher is tlking into the mic

2. When ur tlking to ur frriends it really hard to hear it cuz the teacher is busy talking.

3. When its not on and the teacher is tlking its really embarassing to raise ur hand and randomly go the mic is off

4. when ur carrying it u drop it sometimes cuz u have to much stuff

5. When ur carrying u can also lose some parts of the mic.

6. It will give u detentions by mean teacher for no reason

and etc..

Here’s Nicole’s text message list in support of using her FM system:

1. You can hear almost evry thing

2. U don't miss out on much

3. U don't miss out on wut u don't know u missed out on (big/small)

4. Language feeds ur brain

5. U learn more even if its not on the test

6. U can sit wherever evr u want and still hear

7. U can sit in the center and hear evry 1 else bttr

8. U feel more confident because u kno wuts going on

9. U can close ur eyes and still kno wuts happenin

10. U hav bttr fluency when u speak

11. When u hear evrything u hav a bttr chance of having good answers when the teachr calls on u

Etc...

We are blessed that Nicole is an awesome self-advocate for her listening needs. Each day at the start of school, she picks up her FM system from the school nurse’s office. Then all day long she carries it from class to class, handing the mic/transmitter to each of her teachers and getting it back from the teacher when class is over. At the end of the school day, she also has to go back to the nurse’s office to plug the FM back into the charger, so it’ll be ready for another day. Sometimes it gets to Nicole a bit, that time pressure of getting to her next class and that unfairness of an extra burden that she alone has to bear because of her hearing loss. But it is part of her inner core now to value that spoken language connectedness to the world, and her FM system is a price she’s willing to pay to be able to listen as well as she possibly can.

This didn’t happen to Nicole overnight. As the parents of a baby with hearing loss, we began to learn the crucial importance of that auditory signal to our baby’s brain and her future potential. We filled our family life with advocacy efforts, often over and over and over again with education leadership that did not share our viewpoints of Nicole’s listening needs. A decade later we still must continue our parental advocacy over and over and over again, but now 13 year-old Nicole often leads the way.

Grandpa Hubert, who shares a genetic link with Nicole’s hearing loss, likes to ask his oldest son Greg: “Are you proud of her?”. Yes I am Dad, each and every minute of my life.