Summary table of sound enhancement efficacy studies demonstrating improvements in attending, listening and learning behaviors
| Investigators |
Student Population |
Improvement in Attending, Listening and Learning Behaviors Obtained with SES*'s |
| Berg, Bateman, & Veihweg (1989) |
Regular education junior high school students |
Students and teachers preferred the use of SES*; students showed improved listening and understanding; and teachers noted ease of listening and teaching. |
| Gilman & Danzer (1989) |
9 amplified and 9 control classes for second and fourth-grade regular education students |
Student attentiveness to verbal instruction and activities as well as ability to hear classroom instruction improved when using a FM SES*. |
| Allen & Patton (1990) |
First and second-grade students with normal hearing |
Student distractibility and request for repetitions decreased, and on-task behavior increased significantly (17%) with a SES* |
| Bitner, Prelock Ellis & Tzanis (1996) |
2 groups of regular education second graders (attentive group and inattentive group) |
Sound field amplification produced significant increase in selective attending behaviors for students with difficulty listening to instruction, particularly in the presence of noise, over four three-week periods. |
| Palmer (1998) |
8 kindergarten through second-grade students; single subject design. |
A significant decrease in inappropriate behaviors and a significant increase in appropriate behaviors were identified immediately following SES* treatment. |
| Allcock (1999) |
3 amplified and 2 unamplified classrooms in New Zealand |
An 8 week observation with SES* (alternating 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off) found that with the amplification on, on-task behavior ranged from being 14% less on task to 50% more on task, with a mean of 18% more on-task time than when the system was off. Findings were similar for children with normal hearing and those with a hearing loss. |
| Rosenberg et al. (1999) |
ICA project (2,054 kindergarten through second-grade students in 94 regular education classes) |
Significantly higher scores were obtained by students in amplified classes for listening, academic/pre-academic behaviors, and academic/preacademic skills, with the greatest gains for amplified kindergartners. |
| Eriks-Brophy & Ayukawa (2000) |
10 second-through third grade students with hearing loss and 10 age-matched peers. |
Significant improvements were noted in speech intelligibility scores for students with hearing loss and students with normal hearing with SES*. On-task behavior improvement was noted for 6 of 7 students when using sound field technology. |
| Loven, Fisk, & Johnson (2003) |
48 students in two regular education second-grade classes |
Two-way ANOVA results showed a significant interaction between room treatment and time variables, indicating increased attention for students in the amplified classroom. |
