A general rule for teens: After 60 minutes of listening to music over headphones, it is best to take a break. —Photos: dpa
BERLIN: Birds chirping, sirens wailing, people whispering, traffic flowing: Every day our ears are exposed to innumerable sounds, loud and soft.
What's that sound? Where's it coming from? Does it signal danger? To be able to properly sort out the acoustic stimuli around us, our sense of hearing must fully develop, which typically takes until the age of 5 or 6.
This mainly involves cognitive development, says paediatric audiologist Eberhard Schmidt, president of Germany's Federal Guild of Hearing Aid Professionals(biha), explaining that children's brains must learn to process the stimuli taken in by their ears.
Hearing is also central to speech and language development, he says. A child who hears poorly will have much more difficulty learning to speak.
How worried should parents be about possible damage to their child's hearing from everyday sounds such as music, radio plays, video games and other noises?
"If a CD player, Toniebox, cassette recorder – or speaker-equipped smartphone or tablet – is set to a moderate volume or slightly louder once in a while, nothing can really happen," says ENT specialist Dr Bernhard Junge-Hülsing, spokesman for the German Professional Association of Otolaryngologists (BVHNO).
Headphones can pose a problem for children's ears though, "since there's no control over how loud something's played over them, and the sound smacks straight into their ears," he points out. So it's important to be careful.
The good news is that our sense of hearing is generally quite good at recuperating from high noise levels when they're followed by breaks – but there are limits.
"You're playing against time," Schmidt says. "The more you subject yourself to loud noises in your life, the faster you deplete your ears' recuperative reserves. Consequently, you may not have until your early 70s before hearing loss sets in, but 10 years fewer."
Hearing involves more than just the organs in the ear - the brain also plays a crucial role.
Children's ears, in particular, therefore need adequate rest – not only the organ of hearing itself, but also the brain, which processes acoustic stimuli. "The louder the stimuli are, the more likely they are to stress the brain too," says Schmidt.
A type of noise that can be especially harmful is impulse noise. As Junge-Hülsing explains, it occurs "when a quiet or normal acoustic environment is suddenly rent by a very loud noise."
Schmidt gives some examples: "It can be a balloon bursting at a child's birthday party, thunderer whistles or firecrackers." Another is gunfire, even virtual, should your child like to play first-person shooter.
Schmidt cites a meta-analysis that found video games not uncommonly reach decibel levels upwards of 90 – or that of power tools. What's more, kids are often exposed to the noise for several hours at a time.
"For comparison, continuous decibel levels of 80-85 or more at the workplace require that the employer provide employees with ear protection," he says.
While impulse noise is felt to be unpleasant and even painful, the problem with continuously high decibel levels is that you can get used to them and underestimate their potential harm.
And sometimes loud noise isn't easy to recognize, according to Junge-Hülsing: "For instance, if you put children on the back seat of a convertible, the wind noise there is very loud."
Decent ear protection for kids at loud events is becoming increasingly easy for parents.
Here are four tips, for young and old, on how to protect your hearing:
Tip 1: Wear ear protectors at loud events
When attending a loud festival, concert or football match, for instance, young children in particular need good ear protectors. Schmidt recommends capsule ear protectors.
"They substantially block out ambient noise though," he says. "The child is acoustically cut off from their surroundings to a large degree."
Ear protectors individually fitted by a hearing care professional don't have this disadvantage, but they can cost as much as a decent new pair of headphones or more, Schmidt says. "And as the child grows, they'll no longer fit at some point."
Something else to keep in mind at loud events: "Don't stand too close to the loudspeakers, as it's always good to be some distance away from the sound source," Junge-Hülsing remarks. "And if it's too loud for the adults, then it's definitely too loud for children too."
Tip 2: Take breaks from noise
While it might be less stressful to parents, children shouldn't while away the hours during a long trip by listening to something over headphones, says Junge-Hülsing, who recommends 30-to-60 minute breaks every hour or two.
Similarly, Schmidt is a proponent of a "60/60 rule": 60 minutes listening to music over headphones should be followed by a break of at least 60 minutes.
Tip 3: Limit volume on tablets, etc
Parents should "make sure the devices aren't too loud, and that their kids can't make them too loud," advises Junge-Hülsing. Apple and Android models have such settings. They should also periodically check the volume on kids' headphones, and whether they've become inured to loud noise.
Tip 4: Make children aware of the dangers of noise
It's important to make kids aware of the dangers of noise, especially adolescents who are into gaming, partying and pop music. Schmidt says parents could explain to them, for example, that "the noise levels of a disco reach those of a jackhammer or an airplane take-off."
Ideally, teens will decide for themselves to protect their hearing. There are, by the way, noise-filtering earplugs that block out some noise but still let wearers hear everything well. – dpa
