Parent opinions of radio aid use for babies and toddlers

Watch this video to find out about our project

Find out more about radio aids

Here are two videos from the National Deaf Children’s Society which explain more about radio aids and how they can be used:

NDCS technology – radio aids

My deaf child: using an FM system (radio aid) at home

There’s also a link to a National Deaf Children’s Soceity guide to radio aids here.

Find out about taking part

If you are interested in taking part in our project, please click here and fill in your details. We’ll then get in touch with more information. Alternatively, you can email the principle researcher, Hannah Cooper Hannah.cooper@ucl.ac.uk.

About the project

We want to know what you think about young deaf children having access to a radio aid. Hearing aids and cochlear implants work well in quiet situations that are at distance of one to two meters. We know that radio aids can help deaf children to hear and communicate better when there is background noise or when they are further away from the speaker. Radio aids are often provided for children at school and pre-school but are not usually available for babies and toddlers. There is limited evidence and no guidelines about using radio aid technology with babies and young children under 18 months of age and so services are different for families across the country. We want to understand what parents know about radio aid technology, how they think it might be useful, and what challenges they think radio aids might bring. We will use this information to let professionals know about the needs of families with young deaf children.

Here are some of the questions that we would like to explore with you.

Tell me what you know about radio aids/FM systems/remote microphone technology.
What benefits do you think having a radio aid might bring for you and your child?
Who do you think should make the decision about whether a child needs a radio aid? How do you think the decision should be made. What information do you think you would need to make a decision about having a radio aid for your child?

We are looking for parents whose child is age 0-4 years old and uses hearing aids or cochlear implants. If your child is over 18 months old, we’d like you to think about the period when they were 18 months and younger. We want to hear from parents who already have experience of using a radio aid with their child and those who don’t have any experience of this. We are hoping to talk to 10 families for this research.

If you would like to share your views, you can fill in this form and we will be in touch with more information so that you can choose to participate or not. If you do participate, we will find a convenient time to do an online interview with you which will last about 30 minutes. This interview will be online and you will receive a voucher to thank you for your time and participation.

Get involved