Noise harder on children than adults, hinders how they learn
February 13, 2016 at 2:16 p.m.
| Updated February 13, 2016 at 2:20 p.m.
by
Associated Press
In this images from video provided by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a toddler participates in a speech perception experiment in a laboratory at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.. The toddler was conditioned to put a block in the bucket whenever she heard the “target” word. From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child's brain than an adult's, and new research shows it can hinder how youngsters learn. In fact, one of the worst offenders when a tot's trying to listen is other voices babbling in the background, researchers said Saturday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Emily Buss/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child's brain than an adult's - and it can hinder how youngsters learn.
Children learn language from hearing it, but new research shows it's particularly hard for them to listen when other voices are babbling in the background.
Researchers say the ability to process speech amid background noise doesn't mature until adolescence. That's a finding with implications for classroom design.
Even premature babies are affected.
One study finds that they developed better when recordings of a mom's voice were piped inside incubators to counter the white noise of the machines' fan.
The research is being presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
