Creating good listening conditions

From nursery to university, most of the day in mainstream education is spent listening. This means that good listening conditions are essential for all children and young people to access learning.

Research shows that there is a link between attainment and good acoustics for both deaf and hearing pupils. Poor classroom acoustics are also shown to be particularly challenging for children and young people with mild hearing loss or glue ear.

This page covers some of the ways that settings can improve listening conditions. We also have tips for creating a good communication environment at home and a separate page on creating good listening conditions as an educator. 

Some of the information on this page will be useful for deaf children and young people who use sign language. However, this page is most relevant to children and young people who use speaking and listening in education.

Understanding background noise

The volume of sound is measured in decibels (dB). When we listen to speech, we need the speech to be louder than background noise. The difference between the background noise and the speech we want to listen to is known as the signal to noise ratio, or SNR. 

Most adults can cope with a low SNR because we have developed language and can use our experiences to ‘fill in the gaps’ of speech by making educated guesses about what’s being said. Children need a higher SNR because they have less experience and a smaller vocabulary, meaning they’re less able to fill in the gaps when they miss something.

The average school classroom has a noise level of 60 to 77 dB. There is evidence that 6-year-olds need a SNR of at least 15 dB to understand and process speech. This means that, for children to understand their teacher when speaking at a normal volume, background noise needs to be at least 15 dB lower than their teacher’s voice.

All children benefit from reducing background noise. However, children who wear hearing devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants will find it especially difficult to listen in a noisy classroom with a low SNR.

• Hearing aids and implants make all the sounds in a room louder, not just the sounds that a child wants to hear.
• Hearing aids and implants are most effective when the speaker is under 6 feet (2 metres) away from the listener.

Choosing a nursery or school with good listening conditions

Good listening conditions are when the acoustics are at the best level for deaf children and young people, giving them the best chance to access sound. This is important for developing their listening and language skills. Good listening conditions mean, for example, that there is low or no background noise.

When you’re choosing a nursery or school for your child, it’s not always easy to tell what the listening conditions are like, especially if you visit during a quiet time of day. Here are some tips to help you find a setting with good listening conditions. 

• Make sure you visit the school or nursery during an ordinary working day. This allows you to hear for yourself how noisy it is when all the children are in.
• Talk to staff about any quiet areas used for small group or individual work.
• Talk to staff about how much of the day is teacher-led. This may be story time or a presentation, when the general background noise would be less.
• Find out if there’s any assistive listening technology that could help your child, such as radio aids or soundfield systems.
• Make sure that the school and teacher know about your child’s hearing loss. Is the school and local authority aware of any possible adjustments that should be made?
• Ask about support available from a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD). A ToD will be able to check the listening conditions of a school and make sure your child has the necessary support.

Improving listening conditions

There are lots of thing schools and educators can do to improve listening conditions in the classroom. This could include:

• keeping doors shut when teaching
• turning off electrical equipment not in use
• fixing plastic buffers on chair or table legs to reduce the noise of scraping chairs
• reducing echoes and reverberation (when sounds bounce off hard surfaces) by using fabric in classroom wall and table displays
• suspending displays from the ceiling and having carpeted areas where possible
• fitting specialist acoustic boarding to ceiling or walls
• fitting double glazing

Share our information about creating a good communication environment as an educator with your child’s teachers.

Assistive listening technologies such as radio aids and soundfield systems can help. However, they should be used as well as, not instead of, good acoustics.

Professionals who can help

If your child has a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD), they will be able to make suggestions to improve listening conditions in your child’s classroom. They can also advise on the best place for your child to sit in the classroom to make the most of their hearing devices.

An educational audiologist (Ed Aud) is usually a ToD or qualified clinical audiologist with an additional qualification in educational audiology. They can assess your child, look at the acoustics in their classroom, and give specialist advice about reasonable adjustments that would help your child to access learning.

Listening fatigue

For deaf students, listening can take a lot of energy and concentration. Tiredness after a period of listening is known as listening fatigue. Your child may want to take their hearing aids or implants out when they get home, need a nap after school, or choose not to take part in after-school activities.

Improving listening conditions can reduce the impact of listening fatigue. It can also be helpful for deaf children to take regular breaks in a quiet space or room during the day, where they’re able to remove their hearing devices if they want to. 

If your child is more tired on some days than others, ask the teacher whether the class spends more time in other spaces on those days. For example, some subjects may be taught in a different classroom or an echoey hall. Ask how listening conditions in that room could be improved, whether your child’s class could learn the subject in their regular classroom, or whether they could do a quiet activity afterwards. 

Reasonable adjustments

All education settings must make reasonable adjustments. These are small and inexpensive changes to help disabled students access learning. Reasonable adjustments for deaf children and young people include creating good listening conditions. 

Find out more about disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments in your nation.

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales