Classroom acoustics and children's speech perception

Abstract

Children must learn in classrooms that contain multiple sources of competing sounds. While there are national standards aimed at creating classroom environments that optimize speech intelligibility (e.g., ANSI/ASA 2010), these standards are voluntary and many unoccupied classrooms fail to meet the acceptable levels specified. Moreover, little attention has been given to measuring and understanding effects of competing speech on children’s performance in the classroom. Data will be presented that describe typical noise levels in the classroom. Results from experiments investigating the consequences of competing noise and speech on speech perception at different time points during childhood will be presented. Findings from experiments investigating potential benefits associated with manipulating acoustic cues thought to aid in separating target from background speech will also be discussed.