Semin Hear 2004; 25(2): 117-129
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-828663
Copyright © 2004 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc., 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

The Problem of Classroom Acoustics: The Typical Classroom Soundscape Is a Barrier to Learning

Karen Anderson1
  • 1Infant Hearing Program, Bureau of Early Interventions, Florida Department of Health Children's Medical Services, Tallahassee, Florida
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
27 May 2004 (online)

The typical classroom acoustic environment or soundscape often is a significant barrier to listening and learning for children with normal hearing and is a barrier especially to children with hearing impairments. How these barriers affect speech perception, attention, task persistence, and reading achievement are overviewed. In addition, acoustic environments are discussed in terms of acoustic access for children with hearing impairment and how acoustics can be viewed as an impediment to teaching.

REFERENCES

  • 1 General Accounting Office Report to Congressional Requester .(February; 1995) School Facilities: Condition of America's Schools (GAO/HEHS-95-61). Washington, DC; U.S. Government Printing Office
  • 2 Riley R. A back to school special report on the baby boom echo: America's schools are overcrowded and wearing out. A message from U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley http://ed.gov/pubs/bbecho98/part2.html. Accessed April 13, 2004
  • 3 Crandell C, Smaldino J, Anderson K. Classroom acoustics.  Volta Voices. 2000;  7 28-32
  • 4 Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board . Response to petition for rulemaking for classroom acoustics.  Fed Regist. 1999;  63 29679-29684
  • 5 American National Standards Institute .Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools. ANSI S12.60-2002. Melville, NY; Acoustical Society of America 2002
  • 6 Domus Academy Research Center .Children, spaces, relations: metaproject for an environment for young children. Reggio Children and Comune di Reggio Emilia-Nidi e Scuole dell'Infanzia Modena, Italy; Grafiche Rebecchi Ceccarelli 1998
  • 7 Crandell C. Classroom acoustics for hearing-impaired children.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1992;  92 2470
  • 8 Crandell C. Speech recognition in noise by children with minimal degrees of sensorineural hearing loss.  Ear Hear. 1993;  14 210-216
  • 9 Elliot L. Performance of children aged 9 to 17 years on a test of speech intelligibility in noise using sentence material with controlled word predictability.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1979;  66 651-653
  • 10 Elliot L. Effects of noise on perception of speech by children and certain handicapped individuals. Sound Vibration 1982 71
  • 11 Elliott L, Connors S, Kille E, Levin S, Ball K, Katz D. Children's understanding of monosyllabic nouns in quiet and in noise.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1979;  66 12-21
  • 12 Higgins A T, Turnure J E. Distractibility and concentration of attention in children's development.  Child Dev. 1984;  55 1799-1810
  • 13 Nabelek A, Nabelek I. Room acoustics and speech perception. In: J. Katz Handbook of Clinical Audiology, 3rd ed. Baltimore; Williams & Wilkins 1985
  • 14 Neuman A, Hochberg I. Children's perception of speech in reverberation.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1983;  73 2145-2149
  • 15 Cooper J, Cutts B. Speech discrimination in noise.  J Speech Hear Res. 1971;  14 332-337
  • 16 Fallon M, Trehub S E, Schneider B A. Children's perception of speech in multitalker babble.  J Acoust Soc Am. 2000;  108 3023-3029
  • 17 Finitzo-Hieber T, Tillman T. Room acoustics effects on monosyllabic word discrimination ability for normal and hearing-impaired children.  J Speech Hear Res. 1978;  21 440-458
  • 18 Sanders D. Noise conditions in normal school classrooms.  Exceptional Children. 1965;  31 344-353
  • 19 Elliott L, Hammer M A, Scholl M E. Fine grained auditory discrimination in normal children and children with language-learning problems.  J Speech Hear Res. 1989;  32 112-119
  • 20 Flexer C. Rationale for the use of sound-field FM amplification systems in classrooms. In: Crandell C, Smaldino J, Flexer C Sound-Field FM Amplification: Theory and Practical Applications. San Diego, CA; Singular 1995
  • 21 Flexer C. Facilitating Hearing and Listening in Young Children, 2nd ed. San Diego, CA; Singular 1999 4
  • 22 Bolt R, MacDonald A. Theory of speech masking by reverberation.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1949;  21 577-580
  • 23 French N, Steinberg J. Factors governing the intelligibility of speech sounds.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1947;  19 90-119
  • 24 Nabelek A, Robinson P. Monaural and binaural speech perception in reverberation for listeners of various ages.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1982;  71 1242-1248
  • 25 Johnson C E. Children's phoneme identification in reverberation and noise.  J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2000;  43 144-157
  • 26 Johnson C E, Stein R L, Broadway A, Markwalter T S. “Minimal” high-frequency hearing loss and school age children: speech recognition in a classroom.  Lang Speech Hear Serv School. 1997;  28 77-85
  • 27 Broadbent D E. Effect of noise on an “intellectual” task.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1958;  30 824-827
  • 28 Broadbent D E. The current state of noise research. Reply to Poulton.  Psychol Bull. 1978;  95 1052-1067
  • 29 Hamilton P, Hockey R, Rejman M. The place of the concept of activation in human information processing theory: An integrative approach. In: Dornic S Attention and Performance, 6th ed. London; Academic Press 1977
  • 30 Hockey G RJ, Hamilton P. Arousal and information selection in short-term memory.  Nature. 1970;  226 866-867
  • 31 Park J F, Payne M C. Effects of noise level and difficulty of task in performing division.  J Appl Psychol. 1963;  47 367-368
  • 32 Poulton E C. Continuous intense noise masks auditory feedback and inner speech.  Psychol Bull. 1977;  84 977-1001
  • 33 Eschenbrenner A J. Effects of intermittent noise on the performance of a complex motor task.  Hum Factors. 1971;  13 59-63
  • 34 Fisher S. A “distraction effect” of noise bursts.  Perception. 1972;  1 223-226
  • 35 Eysenck M W, Eysenck M C. Memory scanning, introversion-extroversion and levels of processing.  J Res Pers. 1979;  13 305-313
  • 36 Slater B R. Effects of noise on pupil performance.  J Educ Psychology. 1968;  59 239-243
  • 37 Smith A P. The effects of different types of noise on semantic processing and syntactic reasoning.  Acta Psychol (Amst). 1985;  58 263-273
  • 38 Wilding J, Mohindra N. Noise slows phonological coding and maintenance rehearsal: an explanation for some effects of noise on memory. In: Rossi G Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem. Milan; Centro Richerche e Studi Amplifon 1983: 759-771
  • 39 Jones D. Progress and prospects in the study of performance in noise. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem Stockholm; 1989
  • 40 Bradley J. Speech intelligibility studies in classrooms.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1986;  80 846-854
  • 41 Irwin R J, McAuley S F. Relations among temporal acuity, hearing loss, and the perception of speech distorted by noise and reverberation.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1987;  81 1557-1565
  • 42 Lochner J P, Burger J F. The intelligibility of speech under reverberant conditions.  Acoustica. 1961;  11 195-200
  • 43 Nabelek A, Pickett J. Monaural and binaural speech perception through hearing aids under noise and reverberation with normal and hearing-impaired listeners.  J Speech Hear Res. 1974;  17 724-739
  • 44 Yacullo W S, Hawkins D B. Speech recognition in noise and reverberation by school-age children.  Audiology. 1987;  26 235-246
  • 45 Bistafa S R, Bradley J S. Reverberation time and maximum background-noise level for classrooms from a comparative study of speech intelligibility metrics.  J Acoust Soc Am. 2000;  107 861-875
  • 46 Papso C F, Blood M. Word recognition skills of children and adults in background noise.  Ear Hear. 1989;  10 235-236
  • 47 Stuart A, Phillips D P. Word recognition in continuous noise, interrupted noise, and in quiet by normal-hearing listeners at two sensation levels.  Scand Audiol. 1997;  26 112-116
  • 48 Nabelek A, Pickett J. Reception of consonants in a classroom as affected by monaural and binaural listening, noise, reverberation, and hearing aids.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1974b;  56 628-639
  • 49 Smith A P. Noise and aspects of attention.  Br J Psychol. 1991;  82 313-324
  • 50 Ando Y, Nakane Y. Effects of aircraft noise on the mental work of pupils.  J Sound Vibration. 1975;  43 683-691
  • 51 Hartman G. The effects of noise on children.  J Educ Psychol. 1946;  37 149-161
  • 52 Cohen S, Lezak A. Noise and inattentiveness to social cues.  Environ Behav. 1977;  9 559-572
  • 53 Cohen S, Weinstein N. Nonauditory effects of noise on behavior and health.  J Social Issue. 1981;  37 36-70
  • 54 Crandell C, Smaldino J. Speech perception in noise by children for whom English is a second language.  Am J Audiol. 1996;  5 47-51
  • 55 Passchier-Vermeer W, Passchier W F. Noise exposure and public health.  Environ Health Perspect. 2000;  108 123-131
  • 56 Dornic S, Fernaeus S. Incidental Learning and Processing Rigidity in Noise. Report No. 589 Stockholm; Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm 1982
  • 57 Gawron V J. Performance effects of noise intensity, psychological set, and task type and complexity.  Hum Factors. 1982;  24 225-243
  • 58 Cohen S, Evans G W, Krantz D S, Stokols D S, Kelly S. Aircraft noise and children: longitudinal and cross-sectional evidence on adaptation to noise and the effectiveness of noise abatement.  J Pers Soc Psychol. 1981;  40 331-345
  • 59 Cohen S, Evans G W, Krantz D S, Stokols D S. Physiological, motivational, and cognitive effects of aircraft noise on children: moving from the laboratory to the field.  Am Psychol. 1980;  35 231-243
  • 60 Downs D, Crum M. Processing demands during auditory learning under degraded listening conditions.  J Speech Hear Res. 1978;  21 702-714
  • 61 Hiroto D. Locus of control and learned helplessness.  J Exp Psychol. 1974;  102 87-193
  • 62 Hiroto D, Seligman M EP. Generality of learned helplessness in humans.  J Pers Soc Psychol. 1975;  31 311-327
  • 63 Bronzaft A L, McCarthy D P. The effect of elevated train noise on reading ability.  Environ Behav. 1975;  7 517-528
  • 64 Bronzaft A L. The effect of a noise abatement program on reading ability.  J Environ Psychol. 1981;  1 215-222
  • 65 Cohen S, Glass D, Singer J. Apartment noise, auditory discrimination, and reading ability in children.  J Exp Soc Psychol. 1973;  9 407-422
  • 66 Green K, Pasternak B, Shore B. Effects of aircraft noise on reading ability of school age children.  Arch Environ Health. 1982;  37 24-31
  • 67 Brady S, Shankweiler D, Mann V. Speech perception and memory coding in relation to reading ability.  J Exp Child Psychol. 1983;  35 345-347
  • 68 Edmonds E M, Smith L R. Students performance as a function of sex, noise, and intelligence.  Psychol Rep. 1985;  56 727-730
  • 69 Hygge S, Evans G W, Bullinger M. The Munich airport noise study: cognitive effects on children from before to after the change over of airports. In: Proceedings of Inter-Noise '96. Book 5 Liverpool; Institute of Acoustics 1996: 2189-2192
  • 70 Evans G W, Maxwell L. Chronic noise exposure and reading deficits: the mediating effects of language acquisition.  Environ Behav. 1997;  29 638-656
  • 71 Haines M M, Stansfeld S A, Job R FS, Berglund B, Hea J. Chronic aircraft noise exposure, stress responses, mental health and cognitive performance in school.  Psychol Med. 2001;  31 265-277
  • 72 Moch-Siboney A. Study of the effects of noise on personality and certain psychomotor and intellectual aspects of children after a prolonged exposure.  Travail Humane. 1984;  47 155-165
  • 73 Luka J S, DuPree R B, Swing J W. Report of a study on the effects of freeway noise on academic achievement of elementary school children, and a recommendation for a criterion level for a school noise abatement program. Sacramento, CA; California Department of Health Services 1981
  • 74 Flexer C. Turn on sound: an odyssey of sound field amplification.  Educ Audiol Assoc Newsl. 1989;  5 6-7
  • 75 Ray H, Sarff L, Glassford J. Soundfield amplification: an innovative educational intervention for mainstreamed learning disabled students.  Directive Teacher. 1984;  6 8-20
  • 76 Reichman J, Healy W C. Learning disabilities and conductive hearing loss involving otitis media.  J Learn Disabil. 1983;  16 272-278
  • 77 Silverman L, Chitwood D, Waters J. Young gifted children: can parents identify giftedness?.  Top Early Child Special Educ. 1986;  6 23-37
  • 78 Webster J, Snell K. Noise levels and the speech intelligibility of teachers in classrooms.  J Acad Rehab Audiol. 1983;  16 234-255
  • 79 Crandell C, Bess F. Speech recognition of children in a “typical” classroom setting.  ASHA. 1986;  29 87
  • 80 Boothroyd A. Auditory development of the hearing child.  Scand Audiol. 1997;  26(suppl 46) 9-16
  • 81 Siebert M. Educators often struck by voice ailments. The DesMoines Register. February 7, 1999:4
  • 82 Gotaas C, Starr C C. Vocal fatigue among teachers.  Folia Phoniatr (Basel). 1993;  45 120-129
  • 83 Allen L. The effect of sound field amplification has on teacher vocal abuse problems. Poster Session presented at: the Summer Conference of the Educational Audiology Association Lake Lure, NC; 1995
  • 84 Smith E, Gray S D, Dove H, Kirchner L, Heras H. Frequency and effects of teachers' voice problems.  J Voice. 1997;  11 81-87
  • 85 Titze I R, Lemke J, Montequin D. Populations in the U.S. workforce who rely on voice as a primary tool of trade.  NCVS Status Progress Rep. 1996;  10 127-132
  • 86 Urrutikoetzea A, Ispizua A, Matellanes F. Vocal pathology in teachers: a video-laryngostroboscopic study of 1,046 teachers.  Rev Laryngol Otol Rhinol. 1995;  116 255-262
  • 87 Sorkin D A. Classroom acoustics: understanding barriers to learning [foreword].  Volta Rev. 2001;  101 v-ix

Karen AndersonPh.D. 

Infant Hearing Program, Bureau of Early Interventions, Florida Department of Health

Children's Medical Services, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1707

Email: karenlanderson@earthlink.net

    >