THE EFFECT OF SOUND & NOISE ON CHILDREN

Have you ever been irritated by someone else’s loud music? Children, and teenagers in particular, have a reputation for enjoying turning up the volume. But what is the real effect of excessive noise and sound on our kids?

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People are affected by noise, according to research and in the case of children, studies show that noise pollution is linked with gradual hearing loss, which in turn can affect:

Their speech

Their language

Children’s cognitive, social and emotional development

Excessive noise is also linked with:

Sleep disorders

Increased blood pressure

Poor digestion

Slower learning

Increased irritability

Increased aggression.

Regular noise and hearing impairment

Would one loud party ruin a child’s ears and cause this list of problems? Almost definitely not, but there are some interesting facts and perspectives to keep in mind if your teen likes to pump up the volume.

Hearing loss due to noise is something that usually builds over time, but then becomes permanent. You may think that no harm is being done by loud sounds, since your hearing seems to return to normal once you leave the noise of, for example, a concert.

In reality, however, each exposure causes a little damage; and the louder a noise is, the less time it takes for damage to occur. By leaving your children to believe that noise (such as loud music, loud gaming, movies and videos) is an essential part of fun, you increase the chances that they will choose to turn up the volume whenever they listen to devices. After all, ‘kids just wanna have fun’, huh?!

It is important to distinguish between sound - which is one extremely important way children learn about their world - and noise, which becomes a threat to health and wellbeing.