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Do YOU know...

• That normal hearing children can miss as much as 1/3 of what their teacher says due to poor classroom acoustics.
  
• A child's hearing abilities are not fully developed until age 15. Children cannot hear and neurologically process what they hear the same as an adult. (Crandell 1995; Flexer 2002)
  
• Up to 43% of primary level students fail a minimal 15 dB hearing screening on any given day, in part due to the 14.9% (or approximately 8 million) school-aged children that have a permanent hearing loss and the 10-15% of children that have a temporary hearing loss from middle ear infections. (MARRS-U.S. Dept. of Education Study; American Medical Association )
  
• The teacher’s voice drops 6 decibels for every doubling of distance meaning that children seated in the middle to back rows have significantly greater difficulty attending to the teacher’s verbal instruction.
  
• 10-12% of school-aged boys in the United States are prescribed the drug Ritalin. The U.S. consumes over 90% of 8.5 tons of Ritalin produced world-wide each year, leading some to believe that many have been misdiagnosed and actually have difficulty hearing in the classroom. (United Nations 2/96)

This short 3 minute CBS Evening News segment provides an excellent introduction to the problems and a cost-effective solution. Visit our Media page for more video clips and news stories as well as our Research pages for supporting information. Videos are also available in QuickTime format if you are unable to play Windows Media files.