Sound-field amplification is an educational tool that allows control of the acoustic environment in a classroom. Teachers wear small microphones that transmit sound to a receiver system attached to loudspeakers around the classroom. The goal of sound-field amplification is to amplify the teacher’s voice by a few decibels, and to provide uniform amplification throughout the classroom without making speech too loud for normal hearing children. This report discusses the major findings of a study which investigated the effects of sound-field amplification intervention on the communication naturally occurring in the classrooms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The audiological findings of the sample population of children are presented, as well as details of the classroom acoustic environment. Sixty-seven percent of the children began the field trials with a slight hearing loss. The results confirmed the extremely noisy and reverberant conditions in which teachers and children are operating on a daily basis. The findings indicated that sound-field amplification intervention encouraged the children to interact with teachers and peers in a proactive way. Teachers identified voice-related factors to be a major personal benefit of the systems.
The goal of classroom instruction is comprehension. In order for speech to be comprehended, the individual must be able to hear well enough to discriminate the word-sound distinctions of individual phonemes (Robertson, 2000). Normal hearing for children is 15 dB HL or better at all frequencies, and with normal middle ear function (Northern & Downs, 1991). A minimal or slight hearing loss extends from 16 dB HL to 25 dB HL (Clark, 1981). As noted by Flexer (1995), the prevalence of these lesser but educationally significant hearing losses is underestimated. Poor comprehension in the classroom is not, however, limited to those with hearing loss. Acoustical factors affecting classroom communicationIn a review of children at risk of poor comprehension in the classroom, Nelson and Soli (2000) concluded that young listeners perform more poorly in noisy situations than do adults, and the ability to listen when surrounded by noise is not fully developed until adolescence (Stelmachowicz, Hoover, Lewis, Kortekaas, & Pittman, 2000).Additionally, a child's auditory brain is not like an adult's until about the age of 15 (Chermak & Musiek, 1997). Therefore, children cannot rely on years of language and learning experiences to fill in the gaps of missed information.T he aim of this study was to examine the effects of sound-field amplification intervention on the acquisition of specific educational goals for children in mainstream cross-cultural classrooms. Twelve classes of Year 2 children participated in the project. For classes 1 to 8, the listening environments were alternated between amplified and unamplified conditions, each condition being for two terms (one semester) of the school year. Beneficial effects of amplification were obtained in all three skill areas of reading, writing and numeracy. The beneficial effects occurred irrespective of whether the children had English as a native language or as a second language. Classes 9 to 12 were alternated between single-channel and dual-channel transmission options, each condition being for one semester of the school year. The results indicated that using different numbers of microphones did not affect the rate of acquisition of educational outcomes.
This paper summarises fi ndings from studies that evaluated the benefi ts of bimodal fi tting (combining a hearing aid and a cochlear implant in opposite ears) or bilateral cochlear implantation, relative to unilateral implantation, for children (Ching et al., 2007
This article presents teachers' and children's views of the effectiveness of sound-field amplification intervention. The rating scale, Teacher Opinions re Performance in Classrooms (TOPIC) provided information on teacher perceptions regarding changes in student performance in unamplified ‘OFF’ and amplified ‘ON’ listening conditions. The teachers observed improvement in attention, communication strategies and classroom behaviour when the amplification systems were operating. The answers from questionnaires indicated a high level of satisfaction from both teachers and students following use of the systems. Less vocal strain was identified by the teachers to be a major benefit. The children reported that they could hear better, clearer or louder.
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