FM systems can enhance hearing and speech for children with autism.

Children with autism spectrum disorders often face challenges in speech perception, particularly in noisy environments. These difficulties are likely linked to impairments in central auditory processing. FM systems, which enhance the signal-to-noise ratio, may assist in improving auditory and speech perception for these children. This conclusion was reached by researchers at the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University.

2025-02-20 10:00:09https://naked-science.ru/article/column/fm-sistemy-detyam-s-autiz

Researchers from the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University (MSPPU) examined the impact of FM systems on the auditory-verbal perception of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in noisy environments and assessed their potential use in school settings. The experiment was conducted by Ulyana Mamokhina, head of the Laboratory for Comprehensive Speech Research in Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disorders at MSPPU, along with scientific staff members: Kirill Fadeev, Dzerassa Goyaeva, Anna Ilyuntseva, Tatyana Ovsyannikova, Tatyana Obukhova, Ksenia Salimova, Anna Rytikova, and Denis Davydov. The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal "Clinical and Special Psychology."

Previously, Kirill Fadeev and colleagues discovered that the difficulties in speech perception in noisy conditions for children with ASD are not dependent on their cognitive abilities and are related both to low noise resistance and weak phoneme temporal integration capabilities.

The new experiment was conducted in two phases. Initially, the researchers assessed speech recognition in noisy conditions with and without FM systems, utilizing the "Words in Noise" test and the "Sentence Repetition" task. The experiment included 14 children with ASD and 14 typically developing peers. In the second phase, MSPPU researchers investigated the use of FM systems in real school learning conditions with 10 elementary school students with autism. Changes in auditory abilities were evaluated using the L.I.F.E.-R. (The Listening Inventories for Education–Revised) scale.

According to the experiment's results, the researchers found that children with ASD recognized significantly fewer words in noisy conditions compared to their typically developing peers. The use of FM systems improved the performance of children with ASD in the "Sentence Repetition" task from 58.3 to 76.9 percent. In the second phase, most participants showed minimal changes in auditory ability scores. However, several students improved their scores by 8–13 points, reflecting individual variability in the effectiveness of FM systems.

FM systems demonstrated their effectiveness in enhancing the auditory-verbal perception of children with ASD in noisy conditions. However, the implementation of FM systems in the educational process requires further research on their effectiveness in real-world settings, as well as adaptations to minimize discomfort for children and improve interactions with teachers and tutors.