General end of the year overview:

In the beginning of the project, I really had no idea how this year would turn out and what direction my project would go in. There were a lot of question marks and not a lot of plans. I was really all over the place regarding my topic. Through the year I learned so much about not only acoustics and hearing loss, but also about myself. As I researched, I learned about how certain things in the classroom(or just even in life really) affected me specifically and I also realized how and why many of my struggles and difficulties occur and what the best ways to deal with them are. These are life long lessons that I will carry with me through college and beyond so I am very grateful to have done this project. My understanding of special awareness and the value of time inside the classroom has increased exponentially and I have really enjoyed working with everyone involved in making my signature project come to life and grow into the vision I had always wanted it to be but didn’t always know how to create it.

Acoustical suggestions:

A significant part of my project was focusing on acoustics of the classrooms and figuring out the best way to improve them. I studied three rooms: Slocum 228, Weaver 101, and Hunter 201.

The main problem with the classroom in Hunter is that it is all hard, flat surfaces. These are the absolute worst acoustical properties for a room to have. An easy fix could be putting up curtains around the sides of the room that would cover the lab space. This would allow for easy access to the lab spaces but would also provide an easy cover for them that would absorb more sound waves and improve the acoustics of that classroom.

In Weaver, an easy fix could also be thick curtains. Right now the classroom has shades for the windows but they do little to nothing for the acoustics of the space. Their only use is to block sunlight. Getting thicker, cloth curtains would block out sunlight while also absorbing more sound. Another improvement could be adding a wall-to-wall carpet on the floor. At the moment, the room has a rug that only covers the middle of the room. This leaves a lot of the floor uncovered. Adding the rug would add more sound absorbing surface as well as help mute the creaking floor boards that are common in the old buildings.

In Slocum, the space already has a carpet that covers the whole floor although it is very thin and does not help nearly as much as a better carpet could. By replacing the thin, worn carpet with a thicker and fluffier carpet would improve the sound quality of the room drastically. The window shades in this room are identical to those in Weaver so they have the same problem and purpose. By replacing the thin shades with thick curtains the room would have more sound absorbance. In most of the Slocum classrooms, blackboards cover all the walls. This means that hard walls surround the whole room. Something that could be interesting to try is installing sliding sound absorbance panels in front of the chalkboards. The sound absorbance panels would really transform the space in an acoustical sense. The panels would really add a whole new level of acoustical improvement to the classrooms at school and having the sliding feature would make sure that the blackboards would always be easily accessible.

Bibliography

General Hearing Loss Research:

U. (n.d.). Nonsyndromic hearing loss - Genetics Home Reference. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/nonsyndromic-hearing-loss

Smith, R. J. (2014, January 09). Deafness and Hereditary Hearing Loss Overview. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1434/

Cochlea. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30th, 2016, from http://www.nchearingloss.org/coch.htm?fromncshhh

America, H. L. (n.d.). Types, Causes and Treatment | Hearing Loss Association of America. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.hearingloss.org/content/types-causes-and-treatment

Hearing Aid Technology Research:

Shara Tibken November 3, 2016 5:00 AM PDT @sharatibken. (2016, November 03). Apple iPhone tech helps reinvent the hearing aid. Retrieved December 2, 2016, from https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-iphone-hearing-aid-tech-deaf-ios-accessibility-cochlear-starkey-bluetooth-watch/

America, H. L. (n.d.). Hearing Assistive Technology | Hearing Loss Association of America. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.hearingloss.org/content/hearing-assistive-technology

Cochlear Implants. (2017, March 06). Retrieved December 1, 2016, from https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/cochlear-implants

Fish, Birds and Human Hearing Loss - The Latest Research Into Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2017, from https://swentnm.com/resource/fish-birds-and-human-hearing-loss-the-latest-research-into-inner-ear-hair-cell-regeneration/

Fish, Birds and Human Hearing Loss - The Latest Research Into Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2017, from https://swentnm.com/resource/fish-birds-and-human-hearing-loss-the-latest-research-into-inner-ear-hair-cell-regeneration/

Acoustics Research:

DeBoer, C., & About Clint DeBoer (2014, May 12). Improve Your Sound By Understanding Room Acoustics. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://usabilitygeek.com/improve-sound-understanding-room-acoustics/

Altmann, C. (n.d.). Room Acoustics. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.mother-of-tone.com/room.htm

Acoustical Panels & Soundproofing Materials to Control Sound and Eliminate Noise™, Supplied by Acoustics First. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2017, from http://www.acousticsfirst.com/

The problem with how society views hearing loss

Throughout my research on the topic of hearing loss, it has come to my attention that the audience that most hearing aid companies and hearing assistance individuals focus their products and support on the elderly when the elderly are the least likely audience to pursue hearing help and are the audience who will benefit the least from the products and support. Why do people direct their focus primarily on the elderly when there are millions of children with hearing loss who would benefit far more from hearing help than older individuals would? Of course the elderly should get the support they need in order to hear better, but studies have shown that the greatest impact hearing technology and support can have on a person happens during childhood. When the brain is still developing and neurons are still forming pathways the brain is better able to undo any harm hearing loss has had on a child. Speech issues such as vocabulary and pronunciation are the most susceptible to damage by hearing loss at a young age and hearing aids and other technology are the most promising solution to combat these issues. Many parents and young adults do not know much about hearing loss and could really benefit from more outreach by hearing support individuals and companies. There is a stigma surrounding hearing loss, and any other disability really, that creates this image that having a disability like hearing loss is a bad thing and that if you have it you should hide it. People think that if you have a disability it means you won't be as successful as peers who do not have a disability and therefore there is less of a push for hearing technology for younger generations. Teenagers and young adults would rather pretend that their hearing loss doesn't exist than wearing hearing aids.

Deaf culture can also have a big impact on hearing loss and how people view people who have it. A major argument that has been going on and continues to go on today is the idea of whether or not deaf people should learn how to speak. Some people argue that it is a necessity to be successful in the world as most people don't sign while others argue that a person shouldn't be forced to learn to speak just because it would make other peoples' lives easier. Those who are opposed to deaf people learning to speak are often not very supportive of technologies like hearing aids as well.

We as a society need to stop viewing peoples' differences, such as hearing loss, blindness, autism, etc,   as an excuse to write them off as a failure before they even get a change to prove us wrong and start realizing that 'disabilities' aren't all that disabling.

Interview

I interviewed my audiologist for this project because she works closely with individuals with hearing loss and hearing aid technology. 

1) Where are you from/Where did you grow up?

I am originally from Bay City, Michigan, which is where I grew up.

2) Do you think that had any impact on what career you chose?

I do not believe that growing up there had an influence on my career path.

3) How did you decide that you wanted to become an audiologist?

I decided to pursue Audiology coursework when my academic advisor told me the Intro to Audiology course would be "too hard for me" and discouraged me from taking it.  But my personality is a "little" stubborn and I took it anyway. Who was he to tell me something was "too hard for me"! After that course I was hooked on Audiology!

Side note: Don't ever let someone who doesn't believe in you keep you from doing something!

4) What is your favorite part about your job?

I love working with people and hearing their life stories!  I also like getting the opportunity to improve quality of life for my patient's on a daily basis!

5) What is your least favorite part about your job?

The paperwork, of course.

6) What is one piece of advice that you would give your patients that you think is really important?

That it is important to make people aware of the difference in their hearing and how important it is to the patient that they be able to communicate with people in their lives.  I always encourage my patients to advocate for themselves in a way that helps others to understand that what they say matters to the patient because they care and want to hear it!

7) Any specific experiences that you have had while working with a patient and/or a patients family that has really stuck with you?

There are so many it is hard to think of one to talk about here!  I guess the one that really stands out is about one little girl who we identified with hearing loss at around 6 months but her ENT said that she had one normal hearing ear and she didn't need a hearing aid for the ear with hearing loss (which is not the best practice for pediatric audiology – unilateral hearing loss can cause speech delays and academic struggles so hearing aid should be fit). She returned to our office at 4 years of age and was re-tested and the hearing was determined to now be bilateral and progressive. She was fit with hearing aids and LOVED her hearing aids and did so well! She began to show great progress in speech/language therapy sessions and at school.  As the hearing loss progressed, we added an FM system for home and school.  However, the hearing loss continued to progress to the point where she was not really benefiting from hearing aids as much as initially noted and her auditory performance declined.  She will have cochlear implant surgery on the right ear later this month.  If she had been initially fit with a hearing aid on the right ear, speech language skills might not be as delayed as they are and we certainly would have picked up on the left hearing loss a lot earlier. Thank goodness for her mother's intuition that something was not right.

8) How much does wearing hearing aids affect a person with hearing loss in an environment with bad acoustics?

Hearing aid technology has improved tremendously.  We always have to remember that we are comparing performance with hearing aids in the ear to performance without hearing aids on an ear with hearing loss, not performance with hearing aids to performance of someone with normal hearing in noise or how they performed before hearing loss.  For the great majority of my patients, hearing aids provided audibility necessary to understand speech (in quiet or in noise).  Without the hearing aids, the speech sounds are not audible and speech will not be clear.  As with normal hearing individuals, is will never be as easy to hear in noise as it is in quiet.  But with that said, hearing aid technology is handling adverse listening environments better than ever!

9) Anything that I have forgot to ask that you want to add?

I don't think so!

Life Update!

About a few months ago, I lost my hearing aids. Because of this, I have had a lot harder of a time in class and have struggled to hear even more than usual. My parents were extremely upset that they were lost because they cost $3,000 each. My family's insurance covers my hearing aid costs, but only every 4 years. What this means is that I am only allowed to get new hearing aids every 4 years, otherwise my parents have to pay the full amount. Luckily for me, 4 years would have been January of 2017 so therefore, I was eligible to receive new hearings aids this January. Both Widex and Phonak, two top hearing aid manufacturers, just came out with a newly designed hearing aid and now I am in the process of trying them both out. Originally, hearing aid technology could only go so far. The technology of hearing aids was not advanced enough to let your brain decide that was important to hear and what was not important to hear. Hearing aids focused on whatever was directly in front of you, using a directional microphone, and deemed any other noise as background noise, focusing the microphone away from those noises. This was very problematic. In the real world, everyone speaking to you won't be directly in front of your face, and sometimes in classroom settings and meetings, teachers or speakers walk around the room and therefore are not in front of the hearing impaired student at all times. While hearing aid companies recognized this as a problem, the technologies available to them were not able to fix this issue. These new hearing aids, however, have the latest technology and have fixed the problem that hearing aids were facing. This new technology has a 360 degree microphone allowing the hearing aid to pick up all sounds and send them to the brain to be processed. This is revolutionary because up until this point, a little machine inside the hearing aid was deciding what was important and should be focused on, not the people themselves. The new microphone technology allows this and now instead of feeling isolated and forced to listen to only what is in front of me, I get to choose what I feel is worth listening to and my brain gets to perform activities it has never done before. Right now, I am wearing the Phonak hearing aids and in the next few weeks I will be switching to Widex hearing aids to compare the two. Stay tuned for more information regarding the new hearing aids and I am very excited to continue sharing my comparisons and new experiences with the new technology!

How do I intend to help improve my school's acoustics to better enable learning in the classroom? Good question! Something that I have noticed during my 4 years here is the terrible acoustics that seem to be in almost every classroom in the school. In Slocum and Weaver, the high ceilings cause quite a problem while in Hunter, the cementer floor, walls and ceilings in every classroom cause the noise disruption.

Concrete is a great material to use when the goal is to keep sound inside one room, however because it is a thick, hard surface, it reflects sound back in the direction it came from; this causes reverberation. While it is known that two hard, flat walls can cause a lot of reverberation, there is not much that can be done because almost all rooms are shaped in that way. However, the material used can really improve the acoustics of a space.

Emma Willard has already taken steps to improve the acoustics in classrooms. Rugs, or any soft, fluffy material, is great at absorbing sound. Instead of reflecting sound back into the room, rugs absorb the sound which decreases the amount of echo in a space. Most of Emma Willard School's classrooms have rugs to counteract the high ceilings and the echo effect that these high ceilings create. While this is a step in the right direction, it still is not enough. The rugs in most of the classrooms now are old and worn, making them flat and hard on the ground. When rugs become worn out, their sound absorbing qualities drastically decrease so in order for a rug to be an effective echo decreasing material, it cannot be thin and hard like the ones in the classrooms now.

In the next few months, I will be studying the effects that different materials have on the level of reverberation in a space. I will be studying how to improve current classrooms by adding materials and what materials work best for the job of eliminating echo and improving overall acoustics. Check back in the coming months for updates on my research!