A study of young children by Flexer et al. (A-9) published in the Hearing Journal examines the effectiveness of an FM sound field when teaching phonics to children. In the study, children in a classroom with no phonological or phonemic awareness training (control) were compared to a class with phonological and phonemic awareness (PPA) and to a class that utilized phonological and phonemic awareness training and the FM sound field (PPA/FM). A total of 53 students from three separate preschool classrooms participated in this study. Students were given a measure of phonemic awareness in preschool and then at the end of the first semester of kindergarten. The improvement scores are listed in the following table as measured by the Yopp–Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation.

Improvement (Control) Improvement PPA Improvement PPA/FM 0 1 2 119 1 1 3 320 0 2 15 7 21 1 2 18 9 21 4 3 19 11 22 5 6 20 17 22 97 5 17 15 9 8 17 17 13 9 18 17 18 18 18 19 0 20 19 22 0 19 Source: Data provided courtesy of John P. Holcomb, Jr., Ph.D.
Test for a significant difference among the three groups. Let a ¼ :05.