Neil Logue and Emma Greenland In November, groundbreaking new schools in Liverpool UK, hosted the BCSE World Learning Environments Conference which was organised by the British Council for School Environments. One of the breakout sessions was Acoustics, furniture and flexible spaces where Emma Greenland of WSP Group and Neil Logue, Managing Director of Kilworth Studio […]
Education
One in three school-children with hearing problems
Photograph:hear it.org According to a recent study published by hear it.org, as many as 35 percent of school-children in Argentina suffer from hearing damage. Tests conducted among 450 pupils ages 6 through 13 years in Argentina found that more than one third of them suffered from some degree of hearing loss. This prevalence is much […]
Comparison of two primary school classrooms before and after acoustical treatment
Arianna Astolfi Arianna Astolfi, from researcher in Building Physics and building services at Politecnico di Torino, Italy, was presenting the results on speech intelligibility and measurements performed in a primary laboratory-classroom before and after a sound absorption acoustical treatment. She concluded that the correlation between speech intelligibility and objective parameters are obtained for children of […]
BBC See Hear Programme – Users views regarding acoustic improvements at Sweyne Park School in the UK
This BBC programme features interesting feedback from deaf students and their teachers, when their acoustic environment was improved beyond minimum acoustic compliance. It highlights where these benefits can help children particularly with special hearing requirements and how it motivated them to take action themselves. The programme is available for a limited time on the BBC […]
Schools can’t just look good…
…They must sound good too! The National Deaf Children’s Society NDCS has published a summary of the latest findings from the UK survey “Do schools sound good?” We posted information about the survey this in June, if you are interested in the latest summary please click here Here is an outline of points the NDCS […]
Grand Designs on School Acoustics
An impressive initiative by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) and Grand Designs Kevin McCloud involving 50 MPs, is calling for government to ensure that new schools meet national standards for acoustics. The call comes after Freedom of Information Act data received by NDCS showed that only 21% of the local authorities in England that […]
11 commandements to protect your hearing
RAs reported in Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin (November 3, 2008) screening of primary school pupils’ hearing wasn’t a research program only. One of the main tasks was to build awareness toward hearing protection and noise control. A short guide for children, parents ,and teachers has been prepared, with advice how to protect hearing and how to […]
Only 1 of 10 Swedish local authorities has an action plan towards noise in schools
Few local authorities in Sweden do something active as to reduce noise and high sound levels in schools. Only 12 % of the local authorities have an action plan, reveals an investigation done by “Lilla Aktuellt” (Swedish TV-program for young people). In spite of knowing that noise and high sound levels indeed are work environment […]
Swedish study on hearing impairment and tinnitus among school staff
This investigation show an increased occurrence of hearing impairment among school and preschool (kindergarten) staff. Since the noise exposure in schools is indeed high, it seems important to decease sound levels in Swedish schools. (Summary in Swedish) (another summary in Swedish) The goal with this investigation (Carl Hogstedt, Greta Smedje, Robert Wålinder, Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, […]
WHAT YOU CAN HEAR, SEVEN YEARS OLD ?
From March to June this year, huge screening on 7-years old children’s hearing was done in 7 eastern provinces of Poland (with 42,3 % of total country population). During 4 months, 85% of seven years old children on this territory were examined. The results point out that 20% of them have different forms of permanent […]
