School environments are famously tricky for children to hear what’s being said in class, by their teachers and classmates. And it’s not just children with hearing devices who struggle in a classroom: pupils with colds and allergies or English as another language, also benefit from positive school acoustics.
Read: Tips For Hearing Well In The Classroom
Working With The Children Themselves
Ongoing teamwork with the pupil’s parents/carers, audiologist, class and visiting teachers is vital to ensure hearing-devices are in top working order, with timely upgrades and interventions to address ambient classroom noise.
Read: Teamwork To Optimise Students’ Hearing-Devices
Needless to say, new hearing-solutions and best practices must be tracked.
Creating An Environment For Incidental Hearing
Optimising student hearing in classrooms maxes their chances of learning by listening. FM and soundfields were created to reduce or remove background noise and to lift-clarify the teacher’s voice for the student to hear in class, while also presenting their own voice for self-regulation of their speech.
Read: Childrens’ Incidental Hearing
Children With Hearing-Aids
Getting your child, their teachers and school admin on board with hearing-device and battery management is a great step toward consistent wearing of hearing-aids and maximised potential to pick up acoustic detail at school.
Read: Using Hearing-Aids In School
Benefits From FM Systems In Class
Like all technology, hearing-devices can be introduced to students as a cool item that interface to iPods, laptops, smartphones and mobile devices. Two great books, Samantha’s Fun FM and Hearing-Aid Book, and Oliver Gets FM, explain how FM benefits its users and the technology that’s involved.
Read: Hearing-Assistive Technology For Children
Soundfields Need Acoustically Treated Rooms
Positive classroom acoustics are advised for soundfields to work at optimal level. For this outcome, the built environment needs acoustic treatment for FM and soundfield systems (if used) to be ‘layered’ with the student’s personal hearing technology and tablet devices they bring to school.
More Reading
- School Acoustics – By An Educational Audiologist
- Good Acoustics In Schools Make Learning Easier
- Advice On FM Systems ‘Versus’ Soundfields
- California Student Seeks Real-Time Captions Instead of FM
- School With Unilateral (One-Sided) Hearing
- Teacher Question: Hearing On One Side Only
- Children with unilateral hearing may struggle in school
- Preparing Kids For Mainstream Settings
- Why Are Hearing Difficulties So Exhausting?
- Soundfield Systems: The Need-To-Know
