Acoustical comfort in the perception of literate school children

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia

Santos, Juliana Feitosa dos¹  Tochetto, Tania Maria¹  Seligman, Lilian¹  Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brasil¹ 

关键词: Acoustics;    School health;    Noise;    Auditory perception;    Speech intelligibility;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1516-80342012000300004

来源: Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia

【 摘 要 】

PURPOSE: To verify the acoustic comfort of literate Primary School children.METHODS: Participants were 82 children ranging from 8 to 10 years of age, in their third and fourth year of four public Primary Schools in the city of Santa Maria (RS), Brazil. The sample was divided into two groups – exposed and not exposed to sound levels over 80 dB(A). Visual inspection of the external auditory canal, pure-tone audiometry thresholds, speech recognition tests and acoustic immittance measures were used to select the sample. A Likert scale model questionnaire was applied in order to research the level of acoustic comfort. We also performed acoustic measurements in the classrooms using a dosimeter. Statistical analysis were conducted.RESULTS: The mean acoustic level in each classroom varied from 51.9 dB(A) to 114 dB(A). From the total sample of 82 children, 20.7% were exposed to sound levels greater than 80 dB(A). Discomfort was referred by 46.3% of the total sample, hitting its highest level (51.3%) on the question of whether or not noise disturbs reading and writing processes. The attitude of comfort was predominant regarding speech intelligibility. As for reading and writing difficulties, discomfort was mostly indicated among subjects.CONCLUSION: The feeling of discomfort was predominant in both groups.

【 授权许可】

Unknown