| Studies have indicated that typical school classrooms have high noise levels that can have deleterious effects on speech perception ability. Children with minimal hearing loss, conductive hearing loss, those with language or articulation disorders and other populations have been identified as being at risk for academic difficulties when listening in noise. Students, especially younger ones, benefit from the use of FM technology, which provides improved signal-to-noise ratios, enabling improved speech perception.; This project involved measurements of ambient noise and reverberation levels in eight classrooms at a local elementary school. The classroom noise and reverberation measures indicated that all eight classrooms were in need of FM technology. To obtain this technology, donations were requested from local businesses and individuals. The goal was to obtain sufficient funds to purchase eight soundfield FM systems for the kindergarten, first and second grades. To date, funds have been raised to purchase one FM system for the school. Efforts to raise more funding are ongoing. In the meantime, recommendations on low-cost interventions for reducing classroom noise levels were made. |
