Improving the Listening Environment for Deaf Children in Educational Settings
Presented on Tuesday 13 May 2010
Content
At a time when many Local Authorities are planning the building of new schools or refurbishing existing ones, we provided an opportunity to learn how to make use of the NDCS Acoustic Toolkit when designing teaching environments. The day also improved understanding of what makes a good listening environment by making use of acoustic labs of the Built Environment Department of Heriot Watt University where participants experienced very high and low reverberations plus the simulation of different seat positions in rooms with good and poor acoustics.
Target Audience: Teachers of the Deaf, Audiologists, Building planners and any others involved in acoustics planning.
Presenters: Carole Torrance, SSC CPD Organiser in Deaf Education, Scottish
Sensory Centre
Richard Vaughan, Customer Support Manager, Connevans Limited
Peter Grayson, Sheffield City Council
Dr Laurent Galbrun, Lecturer in Acoustics, Heriot-Watt University
Programme
10.20 am Introduction to the day, Carole Torrance
- 10.30 am Acoustics and deaf children - Understanding the essential concepts, Richard Vaughan
- 11.30 am Is the classroom acoustically fit for purpose? Peter Grayson
- 1. Calculating reverberation time: learn how to calculate reverberation time in a room and observe how changing materials affects reverberation time.
- 2. Experimenting reverberation time changes: develop an awareness of how reverberation time affects speech intelligibility by carrying out listening tests in the anechoic chamber of Heriot-Watt
- 3. Listening to speech recorded in different teaching spaces: assess the importance of background noise and experience how the distance between the speaker and listener can be critical; recordings will be presented with background noise data, reverberation time data and speech intelligibility data.
- 4. Measuring sound pressure levels: learn how to measure sound pressure levels, calibrate instruments, use the equipment and get a feel of the relation between noise and sound pressure levels measured (including background noise levels in classrooms).
- 3.45 pm Course Evaluation and close
1.30 pm Acoustics workshops, Laurent Galbrun
3.30 pm Closing comments