Terminology

Acoustic Accessibility: Acoustic accessibility is achieved when the listener is able receive auditory information clearly and therefore has the potential to understand the information. In a classroom situation, this would usually be speech. (1.1)

ALD: Assistive Listening Device is used to describe personal equipment which helps overcome hearing loss. (3.1)

Audiogram: A graph which shows the quietest sounds the listener can just hear. The two main components are - on the horizontal axis, pitch or frequency measured in Hertz (Hz) and on the vertical axis, loudness or intensity, measured in decibels (dB). (3.1)

Audition: Audition is the sense of hearing through which we can communicate with each other.

BATOD: British Association of Teachers of the Deaf. BATOD is the professional association for Teachers of the Deaf in the UK representing the interests of Teachers of the Deaf and other professionals working with deaf children and young people. (1.3)

BATOD Foundation: The BATOD Foundation is a research, training and information based charity dedicated to improving the life chances of deaf children and young people by disseminating the outcomes of research projects supported by the Foundation.(1.2)

BB93 Building Bulletin 93 'Acoustic Design of Schools. This sets out the minimum performance standards for the acoustics of school buildings. (3.3)

BKB sentence test: Lists of 10 sentences, each containing 50 key words put together by Bamford Kowal and Bench for testing the ability of hearing-impaired children (usually >8years old) to hear words in sentences. The test is scored by asking the child to repeat the spoken sentence and identifying the correctly spoken target words. The final score is the number of correctly identified words from the list of 50 expressed as a percentage. The test can be administered in quiet conditions or in presence of background noise. (3.1)

Cochlear Implant: A Cochlear Implant provides a means of hearing for children and adults who otherwise receive no or limited benefit from conventional hearing aids. It is an electronic medical device which replaces the function of the damaged inner ear (cochlea). It consists of an internal receiver/electrode package which is surgically implanted under the skin, and an external speech processor worn behind the ear or on the body. (5.3)

CADS: Classroom Audio Distribution System. This distributes sound evenly around the room, through speakers, enabling all children to hear the teacher clearly. Known informally as a soundfield system. (1.1)

Critical Distance: Critical Distance is the distance from the speaker where the direct and reverberant sound energies become equal. The higher the reverberation times, the nearer the critical distance is to the speaker. In an absorbent room, the critical distance is further away. Speech intelligibility is reduced beyond the critical distance. It also differs with different frequencies. (2.2)

dB: A decibel is a measurement which indicates how loud a sound is. The healthy human ear can hear approximately between 0dB and about 140dB. The smallest audible sound is about 0dB – silence. but a sound which is 1,000 times more powerful than silence is measured at 30dB. Normal conversation is measured at about 60dB. (3.2)

dBHL: Decibels hearing level for pure tone audiograms. The threshold for a normally hearing person is shown as 0dBHL on each frequency so a hearing level of 30dBHL is 30dB below the normally hearing population. The human ear is more sensitive to some frequencies than others so the level at which a sound is detected will vary according to the frequency being measured. (3.1)

DfE: Department for Education, is responsible for children’s services and education, including higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England. (3.3)

DCSF: Department for Children, Schools and Families, a government department in England between 2007 and 2010 which was replaced by the DfE in 2010. (1.2)

DVD: Digital Versatile Disc, a digital optical disc storage format developed in 1995. (4.2)

EAL: English as an additional language. This refers to teaching English to children in schools whose first language is not English. (5.2)

Educational Audiologist: A qualified Teacher of the Deaf who also has an additional qualification in audiology working in an education support service or school for the deaf. (3.1).

Glue ear: This is a common childhood condition. It means that the middle ear is filled with fluid instead of air. It can affect one ear or both and will dull the hearing. (1.2)

Hearing: Hearing, in humans, is the ability to detect vibrations and changes in air pressure which are then transmitted to the brain and perceived as sound in the ear. (4.1) 

ISS: Independent School Standards set out the standards that independent schools must meet in operating and providing education as an independent school. (3.3)

Listening: Listening requires effort from the listener and is a conscious processing of sound. It involves complex affective, behavioural and cognitive processes. (title box)

LA: Local Authority is responsible for providing (amongst other services), education in a particular area. (4.1)

NDCS: The National Deaf Children's Society: a charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people. (1.2)

Personal Radio Aid: A device comprising a transmitter, which the speaker wears, and receivers which the child or young person wears. These make speech more audible in difficult listening conditions, such as background noise, reverberation and distance. (4.5)

Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in speech which that has meaning in any language. (3.1) .

PSBP (Priority Schools Building Programme). Addresses the needs of schools in most need of urgent repair. ( 2.1)

PTA: Pure Tone Audiometry. This is the main hearing test used to identify the softest sounds an individual can hear at each frequency. It is recorded on a pure tone audiogram.(3.1)

Reverberation: The persistence of a sound after its source has stopped which is caused by bouncing of sound waves off hard surfaces before reaching the listener’s ear.(2.2)

RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally. (4.3)

SEN or SEND: Special Educational Needs or Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The SEN Code of Practice suggests four main areas of special need; Cognition and Learning; behaviour, emotional and social development; communication and interaction; sensory and/or physical needs. (3.3, 4.1)

SENCo: All schools have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, a qualified teacher, who must make sure that children with special education needs and disabilities receive the support and help they need at school. (4.6)

SEND Service: You will find information about local SEND teams and support services in the Local Offer for the area in which you live or work. These services help children and young people (0-25 years) with their learning, health and social care needs. (4.1)

Signal to Noise Ratio [SNR]: The measurement used to compare the level of desired sound present, as opposed to unwanted sound (noise). It is defined as the ratio of signal volume to noise volume and is usually expressed in decibels. (1.2)

Soundfield system: An amplification system that evenly distributes the teacher’s voice around the room, using a microphone and speakers thus enabling pupils to hear equally well regardless of where they are seated or which direction the teacher is facing. (4.4)

Speech Banana: A banana shaped area on an audiogram showing the sounds of speech, giving their frequency and loudness levels. (3.1)

Speech intelligibility: In speech communication, intelligibility is a measure of how comprehensive and understandable speech is in given conditions. Intelligibility is affected by the quality of the speech signal, the type and level of background noise, reverberation, and, for speech over devices, the properties of the communication system.(2.2)

Speech Spectrum: the average range of frequencies for the human voice (3.1)

SPR: School Premises Regulations, the minimum standards for school premises. (3.3)

SIN or Speech in Noise tests: Speech is presented in quiet and with varying levels of background noise to ascertain the difficulty the child has in understanding the speech in the presence of noise. Sentences or single words can be used.(1.2)

ToD /ToDs: A qualified teacher who has an additional mandatory qualification in teaching deaf children. (3.1)