Classroom Sound Amplification: An Audiologist’s Suggestions to Improve Learning

It is often frustrating to find cost-effective solutions for the parent concerned about the educational outcome for an at-risk school-age child. Two relatively affordable strategies that I frequently suggest for improving a student's performance and learning efficiency in the traditional classroom setting are:

Installing a classroom speaker system to boost the teacher's voice above the ambient noise level.
Fitting the student for custom noise reduction ear plugs for studying and test taking to reduce distracting background noises.

When a classroom is equipped with a sound-field amplification system, the teacher's voice is transmitted from a Lavalier FM microphone to ceiling or wall mounted speakers which amplify it 8 to 10 dB above ambient room noise. In this way all the children, regardless of seat location and the direction the teacher is facing, are able to hear the teacher. Background noises interfere most significantly for children with learning disabilities, those in the early language acquisition process or with fluctuating hearing losses. However, the benefits of improved signal to noise ratios have been demonstrated on the normal student population as well.

Research on the sound field classroom systems indicates:

Reduced referral for individual resource assistance
Improved verbal and analytical standardized test performance
Increases in teacher instruction time with improved student attention
Reduction in vocal strain for the teacher

These classroom amplification systems cost about $800 to $1,000 per classroom and are purchased directly from the manufacturers. Since this is a relatively new concept in this area, I keep manufacturers' brochures, a video and a loaner portable unit available in my Irvine office to educate interested families and school groups. Several ceiling mounted speakers are installed in Irvine and Costa Mesa classrooms, and direct observation is usually the most effective way to demonstrate the acoustic benefits and operation of the equipment.

Noise reduction earplugs can effectively allow students to better control their environment and thus improve academic performance and efficiency. My own introduction to the use of earplugs in academic settings came several years ago, when my high school aged son complained about the noise distractions while taking college admission tests which he felt diminished his score. When he took the tests again while wearing noise reduction earplugs, his scores improved significantly. A subsequent study to more systematically evaluate improvements in test performance through use of custom (therefore comfortable and effective) noise reduction earplugs compared test performance with and without the earplugs for a group of high school students.

Results indicated that two thirds of the students did improve performance when wearing the earplugs. More than half of these high school students continued to wear their earplugs during study, sleep, and classroom tests after the research project ended. Although hearing conservation is often a hard sell to teenagers, this group reported earplug use for rock concerts as well. The cost for the custom-fitted earplugs is $60 a pair.

In short, if learning depends on hearing auditory instruction, it should be easily heard by the student and one solution is use of classroom speaker systems. If the noise in the environment interferes with the learning or test taking process, steps should be taken to minimize the effects of the noise. Earplugs can allow a student to control his own environment without isolation.

Those interested in information on classroom amplification or the custom earplugs (which many area audiologists make) may call my Irvine office: Michele Wilson, Ph.D., audiologist and speech-language pathologist, (949) 857-6051.


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