Effects of Voice Priority in FM Systems for Children with Hearing Aids

Recently introduced frequency modulation (FM) systems provide an adaptive adjustment to the emphasis of the FM system through the user’s hearing aid via VoicePriority iTM (VPi). VPi measures the noise level at the listener’s hearing aid microphone and adds gain to the FM signal when the background noise increases to a detrimental level. However, the potential benefi t of VPi technology has yet to be determined. Therefore, the goals of this investigation were to determine behavioral performance and subjective ratings with VPi as compared to traditional, fi xed-gain FM systems or hearing aids alone. According to speechrecognition performance in noise, VPi provided signifi cantly better scores when compared to the traditional FM system in conditions with high levels of noise. Acceptable noise levels were also signifi cantly better with VPi over the traditional FM system and the study hearing aids alone. Speech intelligibility ratings with both FM systems were signifi cantly higher than ratings with study aids alone. Parent and child questionnaires yielded similar fi ndings to the behavioral results, with signifi cantly higher ratings for the FM system with VPi over the study and personal hearing aids alone. In conclusion, the FM systems with VPi provided superior performance and subjective ratings relative to traditional, fi xed-gain FM systems or hearing aids alone.