Reading, memory, and learning are the cognitive processes in children that are most affected by noise exposure. Field studies of chronic noise exposure with adequate methodological controls and experimental studies of acute noise exposure both come to similar conclusions on how noise affects reading, memory, and learning of written material. The experimental studies also provide insights to the details of the causal link from noise exposure to impaired memory, in particular showing the importance of the immediate cognitive processing in working memory of the material to be read or memorized. It is expected that further advances in research on working memory will become an emerging theoretical perspective in the area of how noise affects children’s cognition. It is also expected that the current research on reading, memory, and learning of written material will be supplemented with more research on how spoken material is cognitively processed by children when exposed to noise. © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.