Grade 1 Students Miss One in Six Words

Why, I ask my children in the gentlest of voices, can’t you just do as I say the first time I say it? 

My six-year-old lifts his shoulders and raises his outstretched palms toward me in a pose of surrender, “I didn’t hear you!”  His clear blue eyes widen pleadingly at me and I feel compelled to believe him. 

Wouldn‚Äôt you?¬† No?¬† Well, shame on you then.¬† Because for one, he is such a sweet looking boy.¬† And two ‚Äì he‚Äôs actually right, well, sort of…¬†

Audiologists have long known that a child‚Äôs auditory system is less mature than that of an adult.¬† As a result, he or she will have a tougher time hearing a signal (such as Mommy‚Äôs voice) amid background noise (like TV, knock-knock joke-a-thons.)¬† The good news for moms and dads is that we know when our child is not tuned in to our voices and are eager to aid them by, um, raising our voices.¬† But move into the classroom environment and that same child may not get a second chance to hear what the teacher¬†says.¬† According to a study by the Canadian Language & Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet), the average grade one student in a typical classroom does not hear one in six words spoken by the teacher.¬†¬† That is a lot of —s to miss. Imagine following a r—-e and not hearing all the ing——ts.¬† While an adult can mentally fill in most of the blanks, a child with much less language experience cannot.¬† And with no remote control to turn up the volume, many kids will become confused or simply lose interest.

The strength with which a teacher’s voice enters a student’s ear is measured by the signal to noise ratio (SNR.)  The signal is, in this case, the teacher’s speech and the noise is the combination of every other sound in the classroom.  So during flu season, for example, the teacher must speak loud enough to outdo the cacophony of coughing, sneezing, and Kleenex pulling by her young learners.  Although such noises don’t seem like they’d be much of an impediment to a child learning about vowels and consonants, they actually are when you consider that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recommends that background noise in classrooms should not exceed 35 decibels (dB).  With a whisper measuring a mere 30 dB and a humming refrigerator 40 dB, it’s clear that only in the most sedated moments could a typical grade one classroom be this quiet.  For an average child to hear intelligibly, audiologists recommend the teacher sound at least 15 dB louder than the background noise (the SNR being +15dB.)  Include the myriad hallway interruptions, such as students stomping to the gym, or traffic outside windows, and one can appreciate the challenge schools face in achieving this acoustic standard.

Just how much does sound affect a child’s academic progress?  While this is difficult to measure, one study by Crandell and Smaldino reported that word recognition scores of children seated 6 feet, 12 feet and 24 feet from the teacher were 95%, 71%, and 60% respectively, or put another way – ‘A’ , ‘B’, and ‘C’ on the report card.  You could offset such a hazard by requesting your daughter or son sit front row center (perhaps send the teacher a few shiny red apples to sweeten the deal) but doesn’t every student deserve such VIP treatment? 

There are strategies that parents, teachers, and students can implement to ensure important lessons reach their intended young audience.  A costly, but effective solution is to add soundfield systems to primary grade classrooms.  It allows the teacher to speak into to a small microphone so that the sound is transmitted through a speaker.  However, a more economical way to improve the situation is to reduce background noise.  According to VOICE, an advocacy group for hearing impaired children, this can be done by keeping classes small and avoiding open concept classrooms completely.  Teachers should close the door to the hallway during important lessons.  And placing tennis balls on chair legs is so effective that is now ubiquitous across all schools.  In fact, Canadian company Sound Listening Environments Inc. manufactures environmentally-conscious balls called Hushh-ups specifically for this purpose.