Effect of the acoustic environment in classrooms on the speech perception abilities of students wearing cochlear implants

Abstract

We examined the speech perception abilities in noisy environments of 5 students wearing cochlear implants (CI), and investigated the acoustic environments in first-year students' classrooms. We examined the effect of the acoustic environment on the speech perception abilities of students wearing CIs in normal classrooms, and our findings were as follows.
The speech perception abilities in noisy environments among students wearing CIs were better when the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SN ratio) exceeded +15dB. Thus, students with CIs had difficulty in perceiving speech in normal classrooms, where the average SN ratio is 7.3dB.
It was considered that used tennis balls installed under the legs of desks and chairs effectively reduced the noise level in the classrooms, and this was necessary to reduce the background noise in normal classrooms.
We considered it necessary to improve equipments in the classrooms, and practical use of the FM system improved the SN ratio and acoustic environment of classrooms. Thus, comprehensive steps are needed to improve the acoustic environment of normal classrooms for students wearing CIs.