New way of education for students with sensory issues discovered

Two Virginia College students have investigated a new and efficient way of education for students with sensory issues in mainstream classes.

Aoife Kearney and Anastassia Taylor were on their third day of presenting their project entitled 'Serene Studies! An investigation into a new and efficient way of education for students with sensory issues in mainstream classes', when The Anglo-Celt approached to hear their findings.

The pair seamlessly pitched their study, which they plan to make available in classes in the future.

Their investigation used noise cancelling headphones which will connect to a microphone worn by the teacher, meaning other classroom noises will not be heard by the student.

“It will amplify the teacher's voice so that whenever the child is in class they will just hear the teacher's voice and all the stressful noise in the background like chairs and people chatting will be muffled,” described Aoife.

The Mullagh student was in class one day and noticed a boy wearing regular noise cancellation headphones, which he had to take off every few seconds.

“I was wondering how it is fair for people who can’t even hear in class and have to take them [headphones] off and then get back to the stressful noise.”

Anastassia described how they hope to implement their project in the future.

“We hope to bring this into school policy so that it’s mandatory for a teacher to wear a microphone when they are teaching for neurodivergent students or students who have sensory issues,” she said.

“Even students who are hard of hearing will be really helpful for extra accommodation,” added Aoife.

“Studying this project, it made me realise just how underdeveloped accommodation is for thousands of kids in Ireland.”