The effect of acoustical treatment on primary school children's performance, sound perception, and influence assessment

A previous field study showed that more than 85% of Dutch children reported they were bothered by noise in the classroom. To investigate the impact of acoustical treatment on children's phoneme identification, 335 school children (9 to 13 years old) from the previously studied schools were invited to take part in a series of tests in the acoustical chamber of the SenseLab. All the children performed two series of listening tests and evaluations in chamber A (untreated) and chamber B (acoustically treated) respectively, while at the same time one of seven background sounds (45dB or 60dB traffic noise, 45dB or 60dB children talking, 45dB or 60dB music, or no sound) were randomly played in the chambers. T-tests were conducted to compare the results of children's phonological process tasks, sound perceptions, and influence assessments in these two chambers. Results showed a statistically significant difference in children's sound perceptions (p=0.01). Children reported the untreated chamber A to be noisier.