The effects of noise on children at school: a review

doi:10.1260/135101003768965960

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The effects of noise on children at school: a review

Journal Article•DOI•

The effects of noise on children at school: a review

Bridget Shield¹, Julie E. Dockrell²•Institutions (2)

London South Bank University¹, Institute of Education²

01 Jun 2003-Building Acoustics (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 10, Iss: 2, pp 97-116

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of classroom noise on children's academic performance and annoyance due to classroom noise levels are discussed. But the authors highlight inconsistencies and discrepancies between the results of various studies and highlight some current acoustic standards for classrooms.

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Abstract: This paper reviews research on issues relating to the effects of noise on children at school. Areas covered include factors affecting speech intelligibility in the classroom; the effects of environmental and classroom noise on children's academic performance; children's annoyance due to noise; and surveys of classroom noise levels. Consistencies and discrepancies between the results of various studies are highlighted. The paper concludes by outlining some current acoustic standards for classrooms.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Acoustical barriers in classrooms: the impact of noise on performance in the classroom

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Julie E. Dockrell¹, Bridget Shield²•Institutions (2)

University of London¹, London South Bank University²

01 Jun 2006-British Educational Research Journal

TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of typical classroom noise on the performance of primary school children on a series of literacy and speed tasks were explored. And the processes underlying these effects are considered and the implications of the results for children's attainments and classroom noise levels are explored.

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Abstract: There is general concern about the levels of noise that children are exposed to in classroom situations. We report the results of a study that explores the effects of typical classroom noise on the performance of primary school children on a series of literacy and speed tasks. One hundred and fifty eight children in six Year 3 classes participated in the study. Classes were randomly assigned to one of three noise conditions. Two noise conditions were chosen to reflect levels of exposure experienced in urban classrooms (Shield & Dockrell, 2004): noise by children alone, that is classroom–babble, and babble plus environmental noise, babble and environmental. Performance in these conditions was compared with performance under typical quiet classroom conditions or base. All analyses controlled for ability. A differential negative effect of noise source on type of task was observed. Children in the babble and environmental noise performed significantly worse than those in the base and babble conditions on speed of processing tasks. In contrast, performance on the verbal tasks was significantly worse only in the babble condition. Children with special educational needs were differentially negatively affected in the babble condition. The processes underlying these effects are considered and the implications of the results for children’s attainments and classroom noise levels are explored.

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220 citations

Cites background from "The effects of noise on children at..."

...Yet there is increasing evidence that poor classroom acoustics can create a negative learning environment for many students (Shield & Dockrell, 2003), especially those with hearing impairments (Nelson & Soli, 2000), learning difficulties (Bradlow et al., 2003) or where English is an additional…...
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Journal Article•DOI•

Effects of noise and reverberation on speech perception and listening comprehension of children and adults in a classroom-like setting

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Maria Klatte¹, Thomas Lachmann¹, Markus Meis•Institutions (1)

Kaiserslautern University of Technology¹

01 Oct 2010-Noise & Health

TL;DR: Findings on the substantial impact of noise and reverberation on children's speech perception and listening comprehension extend to classroom-like environmental settings and listening demands closely resembling those faced by children at school and indicates that background speech affects higher-order cognitive processes involved in children's comprehension.

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Abstract: The effects of classroom noise and background speech on speech perception, measured by word-to-picture matching, and listening comprehension, measured by execution of oral instructions, were assessed in first- and third-grade children and adults in a classroom-like setting. For speech perception, in addition to noise, reverberation time (RT) was varied by conducting the experiment in two virtual classrooms with mean RT = 0.47 versus RT = 1.1 s. Children were more impaired than adults by background sounds in both speech perception and listening comprehension. Classroom noise evoked a reliable disruption in children's speech perception even under conditions of short reverberation. RT had no effect on speech perception in silence, but evoked a severe increase in the impairments due to background sounds in all age groups. For listening comprehension, impairments due to background sounds were found in the children, stronger for first- than for third-graders, whereas adults were unaffected. Compared to classroom noise, background speech had a smaller effect on speech perception, but a stronger effect on listening comprehension, remaining significant when speech perception was controlled. This indicates that background speech affects higher-order cognitive processes involved in children's comprehension. Children's ratings of the sound-induced disturbance were low overall and uncorrelated to the actual disruption, indicating that the children did not consciously realize the detrimental effects. The present results confirm earlier findings on the substantial impact of noise and reverberation on children's speech perception, and extend these to classroom-like environmental settings and listening demands closely resembling those faced by children at school.

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212 citations

Cites background from "The effects of noise on children at..."

...Consequently, the issue of classroom acoustics has gained much interest in recent years.[1-3]...
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...6 seconds for classrooms with a volume of about 250 m3, and that ambient noise levels in the empty rooms do not exceed 35 dB(A).[2,3,5] However, these guidelines are often neglected when schools are built or reconstructed, and teaching and learning often takes place in reverberant and noisy classrooms....
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...[2,3,5] However, these guidelines are often neglected when schools are built or reconstructed, and teaching and learning often takes place in reverberant and noisy classrooms.[2,3,6-8]...
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Journal Article•DOI•

Subjective and objective assessment of acoustical and overall environmental quality in secondary school classrooms

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Arianna Astolfi¹, Franco Pellerey•Institutions (1)

Polytechnic University of Turin¹

04 Jan 2008-Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

TL;DR: Acoustical satisfaction was lower in nonrenovated classrooms, and one of the most important consequences of poor acoustics was a decrease in concentration, and the stronger correlation between average noise disturbance scores and L(A max) levels showed that students were more disturbed by intermittent than constant noise.

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Abstract: A subjective survey on perceived environmental quality has been carried out on 51 secondary-school classrooms, some of which have been acoustically renovated, and acoustical measurements were carried out in eight of the 51 classrooms, these eight being representative of the different types of classrooms that are the subject of the survey. A questionnaire, which included items on overall quality and its single aspects such as acoustical, thermal, indoor air and visual quality, has been administered to 1006 students. The students perceived that acoustical and visual quality had the most influence on their school performance and, with the same dissatisfaction for acoustical, thermal and indoor air quality, they attributed more relevance, in the overall quality judgment, to the acoustical condition. Acoustical quality was correlated to speech comprehension, which was correlated to the speech transmission index, even though the index does not reflect all the aspects by which speech comprehension can be influenced. Acoustical satisfaction was lower in nonrenovated classrooms, and one of the most important consequences of poor acoustics was a decrease in concentration. The stronger correlation between average noise disturbance scores and L(A max) levels, more than L(Aeq) and L(A90), showed that students were more disturbed by intermittent than constant noise.

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182 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Noise and quality of life.

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Michael D. Seidman¹, Robert T. Standring¹•Institutions (1)

Henry Ford Health System¹

19 Oct 2010-International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

TL;DR: The physiologic and psychologic consequences of noise and its effect on quality of life are reviewed, which can have severe adverse consequences on daily living and globally on economic production.

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Abstract: Noise is defined as an unwanted sound or a combination of sounds that has adverse effects on health. These effects can manifest in the form of physiologic damage or psychological harm through a variety of mechanisms. Chronic noise exposure can cause permanent threshold shifts and loss of hearing in specific frequency ranges. Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is thought to be one of the major causes of preventable hearing loss. Approximately 10 million adults and 5.2 million children in the US are already suffering from irreversible noise induced hearing impairment and thirty million more are exposed to dangerous levels of noise each day. The mechanisms of NIHL have yet to be fully identified, but many studies have enhanced our understanding of this process. The role of oxidative stress in NIHL has been extensively studied. There is compelling data to suggest that this damage may be mitigated through the implementation of several strategies including anti-oxidant, anti-ICAM 1 Ab, and anti JNK intervention. The psychological effects of noise are usually not well characterized and often ignored. However, their effect can be equally devastating and may include hypertension, tachycardia, increased cortisol release and increased physiologic stress. Collectively, these effects can have severe adverse consequences on daily living and globally on economic production. This article will review the physiologic and psychologic consequences of noise and its effect on quality of life.

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177 citations

Cites background from "The effects of noise on children at..."

...Earlier studies have demonstrated that children in noisy environments have decreased attention on tasks and have lower performance on cognitive assignments compared to children in quiet environments [49-52]....
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...Previous hypotheses suggested that the cognitive impairment from noise was due to cognitive coping where children “tune out” excessive stimulation and have a generalized poor attention [52,54]....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Place value: place quality and its impact on health, social, economic and environmental outcomes

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Matthew Carmona

02 Jan 2019-Journal of Urban Design

TL;DR: In this paper, the link between the quality of the built environment and its value, in health, social, economic and environmental terms, is explored, which is theorized as "place value".

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Abstract: This paper explores the link between the quality of the built environment and its value, in health, social, economic and environmental terms. This is theorized as ‘place value’ which, alongside ‘pl...

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154 citations

Cites background from "The effects of noise on children at..."

...…(2011) Traffic noise exposure and health road traffic noise road traffic noise is a significant risk factor for ischaemic heart diseases shield and Dockrell (2003) Community noise exposure and stress in children neighbourhood noise Children living in relatively noisy neighbourhoods…...
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...…from well-designed interventions in the built environment2: • Health and environmental: notably tying a greener and less polluted environment to better general health across the generations, e.g. Shield and Dockrell (2003); Braubach and World Health Organization (2011); Honold et al. (2012)....
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References

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Open Access

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Guidelines for community noise

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Birgitta Berglund, Thomas Lindvall, Dietrich Schwela

01 Jan 1999

1,214 citations

The effects of noise on man.

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Karl D. Kryter

01 Jan 1970

TL;DR: In this paper, a book on noise effects on man covering audiometry, aural reflex, hearing damage risk, physiological responses, motor performance and speech communication is presented, with a focus on the effects of noise.

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Abstract: Book on noise effects on man covering audiometry, aural reflex, hearing damage risk, physiological responses, motor performance and speech communication

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602 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Age of second-language acquisition and Perception of Speech in Noise

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Lynn Hansberry Mayo¹, Mary Florentine¹, Søren Buus¹•Institutions (1)

Northeastern University¹

01 Jun 1997-Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research

TL;DR: Findings indicate that learning a second language at an early age is important for the acquisition of efficient high-level processing of it, at least in the presence of noise.

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Abstract: To determine how age of acquisition influences perception of second-language speech, the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test was administered to native Mexican-Spanish-speaking listeners who learned fluent English before age 6 (early bilinguals) or after age 14 (late bilinguals) and monolingual American-English speakers (monolinguals). Results show that the levels of noise at which the speech was intelligible were significantly higher and the benefit from context was significantly greater for monolinguals and early bilinguals than for late bilinguals. These findings indicate that learning a second language at an early age is important for the acquisition of efficient high-level processing of it, at least in the presence of noise.

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436 citations

"The effects of noise on children at..." refers background in this paper

...There are other groups of children for whom understanding their teachers and their peers can be difficult in the classroom, for example children who are not being taught in their first language [40, 49], children with disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder [50], and children with speech and language difficulties....
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Book•

The Effects of Noise on Man

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Karl D. Kryter

31 Oct 2013

TL;DR: Book on noise effects on man covering audiometry, aural reflex, hearing damage risk, physiological responses, motor performance and speech communication.

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Abstract: Book on noise effects on man covering audiometry, aural reflex, hearing damage risk, physiological responses, motor performance and speech communication

...read moreread less

411 citations

"The effects of noise on children at..." refers background in this paper

...These include literacy [6-11], attention [12-17], mathematics [7,11], and memory [18-21]....
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Book•

Behavior, Health, and Environmental Stress

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Sheldon Cohen

30 Apr 1986

TL;DR: In this paper, a Correlational Field Methodology in the study of stress is presented, with a focus on the cost of coping with stress and stress processes, and an analysis of environmental stress and cognitive performance.

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Abstract: 1. Stress Processes and the Cost of Coping.- 2. Correlational Field Methodology in the Study of Stress.- 3. Personal Control and Environmental Stress.- 4. Environmental Stress and Health.- 5. Environmental Stress and Cognitive Performance.- 6. Contextual Analyses of Environmental Stress.- 7. Summary and Implications.- References.- Author Index.

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382 citations

"The effects of noise on children at..." refers background in this paper

...These include cognitive coping [23] and level of arousal [4,79]....
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...Tasks that involve language, such as reading, and those that have high cognitive processing demands involving attention, problem solving and memory, appear to be those most affected by exposure to noise [4, 11, 20, 22] although such effects are not always evident [6, 7, 23-25]....
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