How close should a student with unilateral hearing loss stay to a teacher in a noisy classroom?

Abstract

Objective: To determine the optimal seating position in a noisy classroom for students with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) without any auditory rehabilitation as compared to normal-hearing adults and student peers. Design: Speech discrimination scores (SDS) for babble noise at distances of 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m from a speaker were measured in a simulated classroom measuring 300 m³ (reverberation time = 0.43 s). Study Sample: Students with UHL (n = 25, 10–19 years old), normal-hearing students (n = 25), and normal-hearing adults (n = 25). Results: The SDS for the normal-hearing adults at the 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m distances were 90.0±6.4%, 84.7±7.9%, 80.6±10.0%, 75.5±12.6%, and 68.8±13.0%, respectively. Those for the normal-hearing students were 90.1±6.2%, 78.1±9.4%, 66.4±10.7%, 61.8±11.2%, and 60.8±10.9%. Those for the UHL group were 81.7±9.0%, 70.2±12.4%, 62.1±17.2%, 52.4±17.1%, and 48.9±17.9%. The UHL group needed a seating position of 4.35 m to achieve an equivalent mean SDS as those for normal-hearing adults seated at 10 m. Likewise, the UHL group needed to be seated at 6.27 m to have an equivalent SDS as the normal-hearing students seated at 10 m. Conclusions: Students with UHL in noisy classrooms require seating ranging from 4.35 m to no further than 6.27 m away from a teacher to obtain a SDS comparable to normal hearing adults and student peers.

Key Words::

• Classroom
• Noise
• Speech discrimination score
• Unilateral hearing loss

Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Mu Gil Heo of the Jeil Hearing Aid Center for helping us set up the test conditions. We also express our appreciation to the normal-hearing subjects who participated in this study as controls.

Declaration of interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.