Perception and measurements of the pre-school soundenvironment - before and after acoustic improvements.

摘要

Previous investigations indicate that noise may be a serious occupational and public healthproblem in preparatory schools. Typical A-weighted sound pressure levels (LpAeq 8h) are in therange of 75-85 dB in Sweden. The main sources for the sounds are children activities in therooms. The level and the sound characteristics are influenced by the room acoustics, the totalnumber of children, the number of children per room, but also other factors such as thepedagogic and organizational structures. To study the overall effects of actions undertaken toimprove the room acoustics and to reduce the sound levels, an intervention study wasundertaken. The improvements included change of floor material, felt cushions under chair andceiling absorption tiles. The study population comprised 4-5 yrs old children and personnel inseven pre-schools where improvements were undertaken. Subjective data were collected frompersonnel, parents and children by questionnaires and interviews. Recordings were done duringfive days during two occasions of the individual noise exposure using dosimeters and stationarynoise level measurements using noise level meters. Measurements of noise levels were also done in three other pre-schools where no improvements were done. The results discuss the connectionbetween measured sound levels and personnel response and the particular problems encounteredto assess the sound exposures in these types of environments.