Past investigations demonstrate that the acoustical environment of a classroom is a critical factor in the academic, psychoeducational, and psychosocial achievement of children with normal hearing and with hearing impairment. This article examines several acoustical variables, such as noise, reverberation, and speaker-listener distance, which can deleteriously affect speech perception in classrooms. Moreover, the discussion examines the effects of these variables on the speech perception abilities of both children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss. Finally, appropriate acoustical criteria are suggested for children in educational settings.

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The major consequence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is communicative difficulty, especially with the addition of noise and/or reverberation. The purpose of this investigation was to compare two types of technologies that have been shown to improve the speech-perception performance of individuals with SNHL: directional microphones and frequency modulation (FM) systems. Forty-six adult subjects with slight to severe SNHL served as subjects. Speech perception was assessed using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) with correlated diffuse noise under five different listening conditions. Results revealed that speech perception was significantly better with the use of the FM system over that of any of the hearing aid conditions, even with the use of the directional microphone. Additionally, speech perception was significantly better with the use of two hearing aids used in conjunction with two FM receivers rather than with just one FM receiver. Directional microphone performance was significantly better than omnidirectional microphone performance. All aided listening conditions were significantly better than the unaided listening condition.

Children with auditory processing disorders (APD) were fitted with Phonak EduLink FM devices for home and classroom use. Baseline measures of the children with APD, prior to FM use, documented significantly lower speech-perception scores, evidence of decreased academic performance, and psychosocial problems in comparison to an age- and gender-matched control group. Repeated measures during the school year demonstrated speech-perception improvement in noisy classroom environments as well as significant academic and psychosocial benefits. Compared with the control group, the children with APD showed greater speech-perception advantage with FM technology. Notably, after prolonged FM use, even unaided (no FM device) speech-perception performance was improved in the children with APD, suggesting the possibility of fundamentally enhanced auditory system function.

Appropriate classroom acoustics and academic achievement of children is known to be correlated. To date, however, there remains a lack of research concerning the importance of classroom acoustics for children for whom English is a second language (ESL). This investigation examined the speech perception of 20 children whose native language is English and 20 ESL children under commonly reported classroom signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Sentence perception was assessed by the Bamford-Koval-Bench Standard Sentence Test. Multibabble was used as the noise competition. Results indicated that the ESL children's performance was significantly poorer across most listening conditions. In addition, perceptual differences between the two groups increased as the SNR became less favorable. These data will be discussed with respect to the educational management of ESL children.