In Australia, new classrooms are being designed as open-plan while old classrooms are being retrofitted. In recent times, however, the concept of open-plan classrooms has been resurrected. The plan was abandoned after the 1970s due to excessive noise and visual distractions present in the open classrooms. They were perceived as less authoritarian, through their introduction of a more child-centric approach, and the creation of a “home-like” atmosphere and were deemed necessary in the UK due to post war economic constraints. Today’s classrooms: Open classrooms were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Consequently, one often wonders with such consistent high levels of noise, how the children with auditory processing disorders listen to learn. Although there is some variation in the recommendations, the acoustics of real classrooms are frequently worse than any recommended values. However, a more realistic value for most classrooms is reportedly between 0.4-1.2s. The ANSI S12.60-2002 standard specifies that maximum reverberation times for kindergarten-year 12 classrooms should be 0.6s for small classrooms (total volume < 283m 3) and 0.7s for moderate size classrooms (total volume 283-566m 3). For effective classroom learning in occupied rooms, the SNR of the teacher’s voice should be +15dB for typically developing children and the maximum reverberation time 0.4s. In unoccupied classrooms, multiple studies have recommended that noise levels should be below 35dBA, reverberation time should be 0.6-0.7s and the SNR should be about 16dB. There can be other sources of noise such as children walking and talking in the halls, class bells, and/or noise from adjacent rooms.

Communication and learning is hard for most in presence of noise but it is especially difficult for children with hearing loss and with normal hearing but with deficits of language, reading or auditory processing.Ĭlassroom noise: Even without children each classroom has some inherent noise with contributions from road, playground, rail/air traffic, and building noises such as ventilation systems. Noise that is meaningful, such as competing speech, can also cause “informational” masking as the noise interferes with the content of the message.

Noise acts as a simultaneous “energetic” masker whereby less intense signals are obscured such as pauses within sentences and unstressed sounds within words, so that salient cues necessary for understanding the speech signal are lost in the presence of noise. Noise is widely defined as irrelevant/unwanted sound and may include echo/reverberation as well as the original noise source. Noise is ubiquitous, causing interference in classroom, restaurants, malls, and other recreational places. 1Department of Linguistics, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University New South Wales 2109, AustraliaĢThe HEARing CRC, 550 Swanston Street, Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, AustraliaĬommunication in quiet is a rare occurrence.

Auditory processing issues