June 5, 2024, tes Magazine: The rise of ear defenders in schools: what teachers need to know
Why has there been an increase in the number of pupils using ear defenders in schools and is it a positive intervention? Zofia Niemtus investigates
Edith was struggling with the noise. It wasn’t that her primary school was particularly noisy but the whole-class conversations, one-to-one chats, the whirr of laptops, the scraping of chairs and the snotty noses were leaving her feeling overwhelmed. She was often upset and unable to work, and she found her class of nine-year-olds intolerable.
The Sendco suspected sensory processing issues and Edith was soon wearing a pair of bright pink ear defenders to support her in the classroom while her parents awaited a formal diagnosis. Edith’s progress and happiness at school seemed to improve rapidly.
Such a scenario has become increasingly common in schools since the pandemic. In a March 2024 Teacher Tapp survey of just over 7,000 teachers, 46 per cent said they had seen an increase in the number of pupils wearing ear defenders.
Ear defenders in schools
So what’s changed? Has there been an increase in sensory processing issues or is something else going on? And whatever the reason for more pupils struggling with noise, are ear defenders actually the right solution?
Ear defenders have been worn in noisy workplaces for at least a century. While there is no definitive turning point for their use in supporting sensory needs in education, they have certainly been seen in schools since the 1980s and 1990s in small numbers, usually being used by those diagnosed as autistic.
Dr Ruth Reisman, an audiologist and lecturer at the City University of New York, explains that there could be a variety of conditions that explain why young people are choosing to wear ear defenders in the classroom.
“There are a number of different subtypes and symptoms,” she says. “Classic auditory processing disorder is a category in and of itself, meaning typically that there is no abnormality in the mechanical elements of sound - so the signal gets from the outer ear to the auditory cortex - but there is difficulty in the brain processing that auditory information.
“Then there are things like hyperacusis, which is like sensitivity to loud sound, which we see more in the autistic and the ADHD population and in some of the auditory processing population. And there’s phonophobia, which is fear of sounds - again we’ll see that a lot in those with sensory integration issues in general, and also in the autistic population. And then there’s misophonia, which is discomfort or a negative reaction to certain sounds.”
Could the Covid pandemic and its lockdowns have had an impact on the prevalence of these conditions or are there other elements at play?
It’s hard to know, Reisman says, but research has linked those who had coronavirus with cases of tinnitus and the experience of “brain fog”, which can have an impact on memory and auditory processing skills (which, she adds, can be rehabilitated).
However, Reisman explains that there has also been an increase in advocacy and awareness around all kinds of health concerns, including both hearing issues and neurodivergence. That could have led to an uptick in the adoption of support solutions without there necessarily being a higher prevalence of auditory challenges.
“So the question,” she asks, “is what came first?”
Whether it is the result of more awareness or more need - or both - schools are clearly having to find support mechanisms for more children in this area.
Leyla Gambell, a Sendco in an English secondary school, says that she has had to issue guidance to staff “to support the increase in requests for noise-cancelling devices”. At her school, if a student asks to wear any kind of ear defender or in-ear product, their head of year will investigate by talking to their teachers to confirm whether would be a benefit to the student before permission is granted.
Other schools are taking a different approach and proactively offering ear defenders to children as a tool to aid concentration when they are struggling.
In either situation, parental involvement is key, as demonstrated by a thread on parents’ forum Mumsnet from last summer. . . .
Whatever a parent’s view is, talking to them should be the first step that a school takes, says Margaret Mulholland, special educational needs and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders.
“Parental knowledge is really important,” she adds. “It’s important that they are part of the decision-making process as to whether ear defenders would be helpful or not, because all children are different.” . . .
“They’re just part of the daily equipment that the children and schools need now”
Daniel Woodrow, headteacher of St Gregory CEVC Primary School in Suffolk, says schools like his are having to become more accustomed to such conversations.
“Ear defenders and noise cancelling devices have really taken off and I think there are lots of reasons for that,” he says. “We’re more aware now that there are more children who are sensitive to particular sounds or noises and we’ve noticed that as children join the school, things like that are more of an issue for them now.”
He ponders whether this could be a result of the long periods of homeschooling experienced by most young people during the pandemic. . . .
“But I also think ear defenders have just become normalised,” Woodrow explains. “And I think, as schools, we’ve become more aware that they’re a good thing. I think training for staff has improved, so people are more aware of them as an option.
“They’re just part of the daily equipment that the children and schools need now. When we go out on a trip, the questions will be: ‘Have we got the first aid kit? Have we got the inhalers? Have we got the ear defenders?’”
But what impact are they having on learning? For Woodrow, any tool that enables young people to feel “safe and more ready to access learning” should be thought of as a win.
“[Pupils] have fewer distractions, and that’s good,” he says. “And how many of us adults wear headphones when we’re out and about or when we’re doing things? We block out the noise and find it easier to focus, or we have music on in the background when we’re working.
“There are lots of tools like that, that people use every day. And I think having something that blocks out unwelcome and distracting noises and allows children to feel safe and focused on their learning is a really positive thing.”
But could the use of ear defenders actually harm students’ ability to focus in the long run?
Guidance from NHS Derbyshire on young children wearing ear defenders counsels against overuse, warning that they can become “a tool by which children can live apart from their environment in a sound ‘bubble’”. . . .
It also advises that, with children who use ear defenders, staff should gradually build them up to going longer periods without them - a practice known as desensitisation. During this process, the ear defenders should be kept nearby so that they can be picked up as needed. . . .
Are some pupils too reliant on them?
Speaking anonymously, which perhaps shows the sensitivities around the issue, there are headteachers who admit that they do fear some pupils have become too reliant on ear defenders. . . .
Another concern for some schools is the nature of the in-ear products being used. . . .
“A couple of people have spoken to me about how parents have asked for pupils to wear ear defenders but are wanting to use electronic versions with Bluetooth capability and whatnot,” he says.
This is a “very fine line”, he explains: while some neurodiverse students will listen to music or white noise in class for therapeutic reasons - “And for some that’s incredible, it has real value and purpose in keeping them calm, so that they can then access education and learning”, Tanner says - loosening the rules around headphones in general to allow this to be more widespread could cause difficulty for others, not least around formal exams. . . .
The bigger picture of inclusion
Mulholland adds that constant evaluation of practice is crucial.
“I think it’s all about how they’re used in the classroom,” she argues. “Because any scaffold, of any kind, can be used well or not.”
But she says that the conversation about ear defenders also feeds into a wider, more philosophical one about how we treat our various needs as humans.
“Something that always really stuck with me from Erasmus projects was how wonderful it was in Iceland that in the schools everybody had a hook for their coat and a hook for their ear defenders - they were used by everybody,” she says.
She draws a comparison with automatic doors and escalators providing greater accessibility, arguing that “what’s good for some people is good for all - it’s not just for those who can’t”. And she says that schools should remember this when considering the needs of pupils. . . .
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