Effects of FM system fitted into normal hearing ear on speech-in-noise recognition in Japanese school-aged children with unilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss.

Objectives: We examined speech recognition ability of elementary school-aged Japanese children with unilateral hearing loss under noisy environments and then examined the effects of the FM system fitted into their normal hearing ear on their speech recognition ability.

Methods: Twelve children with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss and ten age-matched children with bilateral normal hearing received speech recognition test in quiet and noisy environments. Other nine children with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss received speech recognition test with or without the FM receiver fitted to the normal hearing ear in quiet and noisy environments.