Further acoustical analysis of infant/toddler rooms in daycare centers

Abstract

At the last ASA meeting, preliminary data was shared on the background noise in daycare centers. At this meeting, further research in the acoustical analysis of infant/toddler rooms in seven daycare centers will be discussed in relation to speech communication. Information concerning the collection and analysis of ambient noise, signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), reverberation times (RT), and early decay time (EDT) will be shared. Comparisons will be made between the measurements and data collection techniques of ambient noise from dosimeters, sound level meters, and other long-term data acquisition techniques. Comparisons of the overall and octave band RTs and EDTs from each of the rooms in the study will be shown. Finally, the calculation of SNRs will be shown for both steady-state and dynamic signals. The steady-state SNR uses several different speech spectra compared to the occupied 1/3-octave band noise levels. The dynamic SNRs are calculated using microphones placed at both the caregiver and the infant or toddler. [Work supported by PHS/NIH (1-R01-HD31540-01A2) Otitis Media, Behavior and Attention in Daycare.]