You’re quite busy and your kid is trying to catch up on a kids show on TV or maybe it’s his favorite music on radio he’s trying not to miss out on, he probably doesn’t want to disturb you and you don’t have noise cancelling headphones for kids available at home; he then throws yours right on and listens away. Who cares? It’s no big deal, right? At least you have your sanity. Oh no, it is a big deal!
The alarming statistics of hear loss among kids provide a great explanation to why you can’t take such matters for granted, particularly the one which states that 1 in 5 teens has some form of hearing loss which has been traced to constant use of headphones when they were much younger. These figures can be cut down drastically when adult-focused or airlines-supplied headphones on flights are replaced with custom-made headphones for kids.
How Headphones Cause Hear Loss For Kids
First, adult headphones are much louder than average headphones for kids. Some of them could be as high as 119 decibels; such peak that professionals warn that, just 15 minutes of toddlers listening at that volume level every day is enough to cause permanent hearing damages to them.
Aside the hazardous tendencies of the high voluminous adult headphones, certain styles can cause some harm too. Top on the list are in-ear headphones such as ear buds which can hamper the hearing faster because of their closeness to the ear drums when tucked inside the ear.
Besides, these headphones are bigger and easily slip off the small ears of little ones and because they are not specifically-designed headphones for kids, children who use them over time are more prone to hear loss than kids who use over-the-ear headphones.
How To Know Your Kid Has Hear Loss
Because of the less obvious and creeping signs of headphones-caused hear loss, only an ear checkup and medical tests can truly detect hear loss. However, if you observe the following signs in your kid, then you should visit a physician immediately.
- Having to listen to sounds at higher volume levels than before
- Unclear hearing in noisy environments
- Hearing sounds faintly
- Sensations and unclear movements in the ear.
Shockingly many so called, specially-produced headphones for kids don’t regulate volumes to safe levels , that is why kids health experts advice that the avoiding of the excessive use of listening devices for kids (and adults) will reduce hear loss to the barest minimum.