Remote microphone systems in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: a scoping review.
Bianca Stephany Barbosa Vital, Karen Melissa Gonzaga Dos Santos, Aryelly Dayane da Silva Nunes Araújo and 4 others
PMID 40008752WHAT IT FOUND
Across eight small studies, children and adolescents with autism who used remote microphone systems showed improved speech perception in noisy classrooms.
Other benefits like reduced stress and better social interaction were noted but require more research to confirm.
Key findings
01All eight included studies reported improvements in speech perception for participants with ASD using remote microphone systems.
02Secondary outcomes included reduced stress, improved social perception, and behavioral changes, though these findings are less consistent and require further validation.
03There is currently no international guideline or national recommendation for using remote microphone systems in children with ASD who have normal hearing.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review included only eight studies, all with small sample sizes (4 to 26 participants). Intervention protocols varied widely in duration, setting, and type of RMS (personal vs. free-field), making direct comparison difficult. None of the studies reported daily monitoring of RMS use by teachers or parents, so actual usage compliance is unknown. Environmental acoustic characteristics (e.g., reverberation, background noise levels) were poorly described in most studies. The level of support required by participants (ASD severity) was not consistently detailed, limiting generalizability to different profiles.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial support and no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that RMS improves core social communication deficits in ASD. The primary consistent finding was improved speech perception in noise. Other reported benefits like reduced stress or better social interaction were secondary, measured inconsistently, and lack robust evidence from large trials.