Why is management of classroom acoustics important for children with HL?
- Students may spend at least 45% of the day in activities requiring listening
- Central auditory system doesn’t reach full maturity until early adolescence (therefore, children in school are listening with immature auditory systems)
What are the main characteristics of classroom acoustics that could result in poor listening environments?
- Intensity and distance
- Background noise
- Reverberation
Describe intensity and distance.
- 2 primary characteristics of the target signal
- Target signal in a classroom is most often the teacher’s voice
- Voice quality and distance varies
- Consider inverse square law
- Intensity rapidly decreases with distance
Describe classroom background noise.
- Children are inherently “noisy”
- Unavoidable noises: HVAC, hallway noise, traffic, lawn mower
- Avoidable noises: class aquarium
- Combined effects of various noise sources create more difficulty in a classroom environment
Describe reverberation.
- Reflected sound energy
- Occurs when sound continues in a space due to repeated reflection or scatter from the surfaces and/or objects in that space
- RTs>.5s appear to degrade speech recognition for most listeners in educational environments
- RTs for unoccupied classrooms range from .4-1.2s
What are some solutions for improving classroom acoustics?
- Reduce or eliminate unnecessary noise sources
- Apply sound absorbing surfaces to ceilings & walls
- Install carpet on floors of classrooms
- Construct classrooms with good acoustic properties
- Reduce the listening distance between the teacher and the students
- Encourage the use of soundfield amplification in the classroom
What are the ANSI standards for classroom acoustics?
- Unoccupied classroom levels must not exceed 35 dB(A)
- SNR must be at least +25 dB at the child’s ear
- Unoccupied classroom reverberations must not surpass:
- 0.6s in core learning space = 10k ft^3
- 0.7s in core learning space between 10k-2k ft^3
Describe the relationship between HAs and IDEA.
- Public agencies not held responsible for providing personal devices (glasses, HAs) for child with disabilities
- HOWEVER, if the personal device is not surgically implanted and the IEP determines that the device is necessary for FAPE, the public agency must ensure that the device is provided to the student at no cost to the family
Describe the relationship between HAT and IDEA.
- Requirement that every student with an IEP be considered for assistive tech
- May include personal FM systems or classroom soundfield amplification
- On a case-by-case basis, a child may use his/her school devices at home if the IEP team deems it necessary for FAPE
Describe the relationship between HAT and Section 504.
- Inconsistency in terms of whether assistive tech is provided under 504
- Section 504 requires public schools to provide students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet their individual needs to the same extent as students without disbailities
- Ed AuD could argue that a D/HH student doesn’t have the same access to auditory information without a personal FM
What are considerations for classroom soundfield amplification?
- Mainstream Amplification Resource Room Study (Ray, 1988) showed:
- Improved SNR
- Less vocal fatigue for teachers
- Improved academic achievement
-FM transmission vs. infrared transmission
Describe FM transmission.
PROS:
- Works well in large classrooms/spaces; FM has greater range than infrared
- Works well in oddly shaped rooms (radio waves can bend and go through walls)
CONS:
- There exists the chance for interference from other FM signals
- Sometimes FM signals are sensitive to large amount of metal, wiring, or electricity in the environment
- May pick up some interference from computers
- FM signals have enough range that a teacher must remember to turn off her transmitter when leaving the room; otherwise, the students may overhear conversations outside the classroom
Describe infrared transmission
PROS:
- Uses “line of sight” transmissions (cannot spill over into another classroom)
- Transmission stops at the classroom door; teacher does not have to remember to turn off when leaving the room
CONS:
- Does not work well in large spaces because it doesn’t have the same range as FM transmission
- Because of the need for “line of sight,” infrared transmission does not work well in oddly shaped rooms
Describe CAPD in schools.
- Suspicions of CAPd in school-age chlidren typically arise from observed academic and hearing difficulties
- Many professionals are responsible for meeting the -Identification and treatment is -AuD will diagnose and determine necessary treatment
What are symptoms of CAPD?
- Difficulties hearing in noise
- Academic difficulties
- Difficulty following multistep directions
- Frequent requests for repetitions
- Trouble understanding
- Difficulty with localization
What comorbidities occur with CAPD?
- Frequently comorbid with other disorders (only ~5% of cases occur in isolation)
- Most often occurs with speech-language issue or reading disability
What are recommendations for the management of CAPD?
1) Physical modification of the environment
2) Improving listening condition with beneficial behavioral changes
3) Adding amplification and assistive listening devices
- Sounfield FM, personal FM, mild gain HAs
- Often considered a short-term solution
- Improvements in speech perception don’t last after amplification is ended
4) Auditory training
- Can improve performance on auditory training measures:
- Auditory discrimination
- Temporal processing
- Dichotic processing
- Various computer-based protocols
