3 Minimizing Background Noise
Definition
Intentionally identifying and reducing extraneous auditory input for students who have trouble filtering and selecting important input to increase student focus and engagement.
In action
Teachers can identify both extraneous/ distracting and important auditory input in a particular learning environment & work to reduce the distracting input to help the student to fully take in the important input. This can be achieved at the whole classroom/ school level, the student level, and both.
Support Strategies
- Conduct a sound audit of a specific learning environment in which you write down all noticeable sounds during a set amount of time (this can also be done as a class-wide activity)
- Work with the student to identify important and unimportant/distracting sounds
- Create a plan to reduce distractions sounds (e.g., place tennis balls on the bottom of chairs to reduce squeaking sounds, add rugs and mats to the classroom floor to reduce noise, turn off equipment, such as projector, that produces noise when not in use)
- Allow student to test and use, if desired, noise cancelling headphones or other sound dampening devices.
Case Study
Student: Grade 1 student in a language lesson.
Content: Students are writing journal entries about a story they read as a class.
Problem: Every time a student stands up to ask the teacher a question, the student is distracted by the noise and loses their train of thought.
Solution: The teacher provides students with the option to use noise-cancelling headphones while they complete their work.
