Auditory Discrimination of Learning Disabled Children in Quiet and Classroom Noise

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Abstract
This study examined the effects of classroom noise on an auditory processing task of learning disabled children, with distractibility, activity, and cognition controlled. Forty children divided into normal and learning disabled groups were administered both forms of the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test. Two listening conditions were tested: (1) the relative quiet of small test rooms, and (2) classroom noise (on a tape recorder) in the same test rooms. Results showed that learning disabled children made significantly more auditory discrimination errors than normals in both quiet and noise conditions. Both normal and learning disabled children made significantly more auditory discrimination errors in noise than in quiet. It cannot be said that the noise affected the two groups differentially; the magnitude of the differences was comparable statistically. It was concluded that auditory discrimination scores in quiet do not reflect accurately the expected value for the classroom.