The 120/60 Rule

Source: Google Images

   

Here is a simple rule to follow when using your iPod to ensure that you are listening at safe volume levels. Listening to your iPod for 120 minutes per day at 60% volume level is a good rule of thumb to follow. These guidelines are easy to follow and still allow you to listen to music at a safe level. If we keep our ears safe consistently while using this basic rule, we can continue to enjoy music for many years to come.

How Many Hours a Day Does a Child Need to Hear?

by Jane Maddell at HHTM:


We know, for sure, that kids need to hear all day long in order to learn language, and to be ready to read. Typical hearing kids hear 24 hours a day. Children with hearing loss hear only when they have their technology on.

Here is what else we know:

• Typical children hear 46 million words by age 4 years
• Children need 20,000 hours of listening to learn to read. (That would mean listening for 12 hour days for 1,667 days)
• Children with hearing loss require three times the exposure to learn new words and concepts.

So, what does this mean for a child with hearing loss?
If a child wears hearing aids 4 hours a day, it will take 6 years for the child to hear what a typical child who does not need hearing aids hears in one year. That means that the child with hearing loss will have significantly less auditory input, resulting in less language exposure, which will result in poorer language and poorer reading. What can we do to change this outcome? We need to help families to keep hearing aids and other technology on their child’s head. For children with hearing loss, time is of the essence. There is no turning back. We cannot make up for lost listening time when the child is older. When children do not receive sufficient auditory exposure, the auditory portion of the brain will shrink and the visual cortex will expand to take over the area usually associated with audition.

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Read the full story at: http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearingandkids/2013/how-many-hours-a-day-does-a-child-need-to-hear/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-many-hours-a-day-does-a-child-need-to-hear

Ear Infections in Children

What is an ear infection?

An ear infection is an inflammation of the middle ear, usually caused by bacteria, that occurs when fluid builds up behind the eardrum. Anyone can get an ear infection, but children get them more often than adults. Three out of four children will have at least one ear infection by their third birthday. In fact, ear infections are the most common reason parents bring their child to a doctor.

How can I tell if my child has an ear infection?

Image Source: www.nidcd.nih.gov

Most ear infections happen to children before they’ve learned how to talk. If your child isn’t old enough to say “My ear hurts,” here are a few things to look for:

• Tugging or pulling at the ear(s)
• Fussiness and crying
• Trouble sleeping
• Fever (especially in infants and younger children)
• Fluid draining from the ear
• Clumsiness or problems with balance
• Trouble hearing or responding to quiet sounds

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/Pages/earinfections.aspx

How loud is your iPod?

In the era of smart phones and wireless technology, we are increasingly putting headphones in our ears to listen to music and other media. How do you know when the music you are listening to through your headphones is too loud?

One way to test to ensure that your device is not set too loud is to hold the headphones at arm's length away, if you can hear the music it is too loud. If you have a  friend or family member sitting next to you, you could ask them if they can hear the music, if the answer is yes, the music is to loud. These are some quick and easy strategies to ensure that your hearing is protected even while enjoying your favorite band. Some smart phones come with applications that monitor the decibel level of the music you are listening to, if you have this application aim to keep the music level below 80 decibels. We often forget how easy it can be to damage our hearing while doing something as simple as using an iPod or smart phone, however, over time this can have a signifiant impact on hearing health. Next time you are streaming music from your phone or iPod, try one of the simple tests discussed above and you may be surprised as to how much the volume needs to be reduced in order to be at safe listening levels.

Source: Google images

 

Hearing Health

We are advised to schedule annual physicals, vision exams, dental exams and the list goes on, but why aren't we advised to have our hearing evaluated on a consistent basis?

Image Source: Wikipedia

Hearing tends to be the forgotten exam of health care, but it is an important step to take towards ensuring that all aspects of your health are being evaluated. We tend to pay attention to hearing only when it becomes a problem, but early intervention can be key to reducing the impact that hearing problems can have over the course of a lifetime. Our hearing can be greatly impacted by many health conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease; monitoring hearing levels can provide insight into other potential health conditions that may not have been identified. Scheduling a hearing exam to establish a baseline measurement of your hearing is the first step, if your hearing is normal returning for an exam every 2-3 years may be good starting point. For those with an established hearing problem, it would be recommended to have an exam every year or follow the recommendations of your audiologist. Early identification and management of hearing problems should be a priority by making hearing exams a regular part of routine health check-ups.

Common Hearing Loss Myths

 "Hearing loss affects only old people and is merely a sign of aging."

Only 35% of people with hearing loss are older than age 64. There are close to six million people in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 44 with hearing loss, and more than one million are school age. Hearing loss affects all age groups.

"If I had a hearing loss, my family doctor would have told me."

Not true! Only 14% of physicians routinely screen for hearing loss during a physical. Since most people with hearing impairments hear well in a quiet environment like a doctor's office, it can be virtually impossible for your physician to recognize the extent of your problem. Without special training, and an understanding of the nature of hearing loss, it may be difficult for your doctor to even realize that you have a hearing problem.

"My hearing loss is normal for my age."

Isn't this a strange way to look at things? But, do you realize that well-meaning doctors tell this to their patients every day? It happens to be "normal" for overweight people to have high blood pressure. That doesn't mean they should not receive treatment for the problem.

"The consequences of hiding hearing loss are better than wearing hearing aids."

What price are you paying for vanity? Untreated hearing loss is far more noticeable than hearing aids. If you miss a punch line to a joke, or respond inappropriately in conversation, people may have concerns about your mental acuity, your attention span or your ability to communicate effectively. The personal consequences of vanity can be life altering. At a simplistic level, untreated hearing loss means giving up some of the pleasant sounds you used to enjoy. At a deeper level, vanity could severely reduce the quality of your life.

"Only people with serious hearing loss need hearing aids."

The need for hearing amplification is dependent on your lifestyle, your need for refined hearing, and the degree of your hearing loss. If you are a lawyer, teacher or a group psychotherapist, where very refined hearing is necessary to discern the nuances of human communication, then even a mild hearing loss can be intolerable. If you live in a rural area by yourself and seldom socialize, then perhaps you are someone who is tolerant of even moderate hearing losses.

"Hearing aids will make everything sound too loud."

Hearing aids are amplifiers. At one time, the way that hearing aids were designed, it was necessary to turn up the power in order to hear soft speech (or other soft sounds). Then, normal conversation indeed would have been too loud. With today's hearing aids, however, the circuit works automatically, only providing the amount of amplification needed based on the input level. In fact, many hearing aids today don't have a volume control.

**From the Better Hearing Institute

New Horizons for Single Sided Deafness in Children

Single sided deafness is a difficult condition to treat in both children and adults. Single sided deafness has been traditionally treated with a CROS hearing aid (transmitter rests on the deaf ear and sends sound to the better ear via a wireless signal), BAHA (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid, which functions similar to a CROS, but requires surgery and sends the sound to the better ear via vibrations of the bone), and traditional hearing aids. Some patients respond well to these options, but understanding speech in background noise and determining where sound is coming from is always a challenge for these patients. Recent research using cochlear implants for single sided deafness has been surfacing and the benefits are very encouraging. In a recent study published in Otology and Neurotology, children were evaluated one year after a cochlear implant was placed in the worse ear. The results suggested improved speech understanding in noisy environments, better localization of sound and some benefits associated with being able to hear with both ears. For more information, please click on the link: http://www.audiology.org/news/Pages/20130328.aspx

Example of a cochlear implant (source: cochlear implant images on Google)