NOISE & IMPACT ON CHILDREN
Noise project blog
Our new blog series follows current research funded by the Nuffield Foundation. In the first post, PhD researcher Conor Bathgate explores the impact of noise in early years environments and considers how practitioners can mitigate its effects.
Research paper
This paper explores how early environments shape development, focusing not just on how stimulating they are, but how predictable they are. It argues that children learn by detecting patterns in their surroundings, and that consistent, structured environments support this process.
In contrast, environments characterised by high variability and unpredictability can make it more difficult for children to form stable expectations about the world. This has implications for attention, learning, and behavioural regulation.
The review brings together evidence showing that early experiences of environmental instability are linked to differences in cognitive and psychological development, highlighting predictability as a key, but often overlooked, feature of children’s everyday contexts.
Research Article
Quiet please! - Early Years Educator
In this article, Dr Gemma Goldenberg explores how background noise affects early literacy, showing that poor acoustic conditions can make it harder for young children to process speech, reducing attention and learning efficiency. Improving listening conditions can support stronger language and literacy outcomes.
Research paper
Finding order in chaos: influences of environmental complexity and predictability on development - Trends in Cognitive Science
Katie L. Lancaster ∙ Sam V. Wass
TOPICS: Environmental predictability, Child development, Regulation
This paper explores how early environments shape development, focusing not just on how stimulating they are, but how predictable they are. It argues that children learn by detecting patterns in their surroundings, and that consistent, structured environments support this process.
In contrast, environments characterised by high variability and unpredictability can make it more difficult for children to form stable expectations about the world. This has implications for attention, learning, and behavioural regulation.
The review brings together evidence showing that early experiences of environmental instability are linked to differences in cognitive and psychological development, highlighting predictability as a key, but often overlooked, feature of children’s everyday contexts.
News Article
Times Educational Supplement Article - Ask the expert: is your classroom too noisy?
A noisy home environment affects the attention span of one-year-olds, research shows – so does noise in the classroom impact on learning? Professor Sam Wass thinks so. In this article for TES magazine, he explains why.
Research paper
Influences of environmental stressors on autonomic function in 12-month-old infants - The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Sam V. Wass,Celia G. Smith,Katie R. Daubney,Zeynep M. Suata,Kaili Clackson,Abdul Begum,Farhan U. Mirza
TOPICS: Infants, Stress, Mental health, Cognitive function
This study examines how early exposure to environmental noise relates to infants’ physiological regulation and attention. Using wearable audio and physiological monitors, researchers tracked noise exposure and autonomic activity in 12-month-old infants within the home, alongside laboratory measures of attention and emotional reactivity.
Higher and more variable noise exposure was associated with less stable autonomic regulation in everyday environments. In laboratory tasks, these infants showed more fluctuating physiological responses to both attentional and emotional stimuli, alongside reduced sustained attention.
These findings suggest that early noise exposure may influence the development of regulatory systems, offering a potential mechanism linking environmental stress with later cognitive and mental health outcomes.
Voice of Early Childhood Podcast
In this episode from The Voice of Early Childhood, Angelica Celinska speaks with Dr Gemma Goldenberg about how indoor and outdoor environments shape children’s stress, attention, and self-regulation. Drawing on early findings, the discussion focuses on differences in noise levels across settings and their links to children’s physiological stress.
