Research on thousands of children has shown that traffic noise can affect the memory of very young elementary school students and make them less attentive when studying.
Experts from the Institute of Global Health in Barcelona examined 2,700 children aged 7 to 10 from a total of 38 schools. Road traffic noise has also been found to affect their cognitive ability and can affect their cognitive development by affecting their memory.
Young age is the critical time when children develop attention and memory which helps them to read and write. Research has shown that children who are exposed to three times as much traffic noise have a 23% reduction in memory and a 5% reduction in attention or concentration compared to other children.
The alarming thing is that just one year of being in traffic starts to affect this mental capacity. Experts have said that even in a country like Spain, many schools are built on roadsides where the traffic noise is unbearable and this noise pollution is affecting future architects.
Dr. Maria Forrester, who supervised the study, said that when children learn in the classroom when they hear the loud sound of a heavy truck, they have a negative effect and lose attention, which is why the surroundings of schools are compared to at home. Traffic noise is more destructive.
According to this report, published in PLoS Medicine, four times a year, children were carefully assessed for traffic noise in the classroom, school, and surrounding areas, and during this time, the children were given various tests that measured attention, memory, working memory ( working memory) and were related to information gathering.
Experts said that all the above mental functions are very important at the young and important age of children and they are being destroyed by traffic noise. This is the reason why the emphasis has been placed on reducing traffic noise around schools.