A child-centred experiment to test an individually controlled noise-reducing device

A recently published simulation-based study has demonstrated the effect of an individually controlled noise-reducing device (ICND) on improving acoustic quality in classrooms. As a follow-up research, this current study aims to develop a real ICND and test it with its target users-- primary school children. The prototype developed in this study...

Individual control as a new way to improve classroom acoustics: A simulation-based study

Previous studies indicate that acoustic improvements at classroom-level, such as using ceiling panels, do not work well to solve noise problems in classrooms. Therefore, this study introduced a new way – individual control – to improve classroom acoustics. The acoustic effect of five different classroom settings is simulated: two individual...

Interaction effect of background sound type and sound pressure level on children of primary schools in the Netherlands

The acoustic conditions of classrooms received a lot of attention in the last decades because of its important role in school children's comfort and performance. In a previous field study of 54 classrooms from 21 schools in the Netherlands, more than 85% of the 1145 primary school children reported that they were bothered by noise in the...

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...

Designing an Individually Controlled System based on children’s’ perception and preferences of IEQ in a classroom

This paper aims to design an “individually controlled system” (ICS) for children in class-rooms based on their preferences and needs. It is well known that a higher satisfaction of in-door environmental quality (IEQ), including thermal, air, visual and acoustical quality, can be achieved by giving occupants control over their local environment....