Seasonal Safe Listening: Help Educate Families With Ready-to-Use ASHA Resources

‘Tis the Season for Hearing Protection! Black Friday and Cyber Monday might have come and gone, but the holiday shopping season is still in full swing. And holiday parties, concerts, and other celebrations are just beginning. While the season brings much welcome revelry, it also brings a lot of noise. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates around 1.1 billion young people globally risk hearing loss because of unsafe listening to devices and exposure to excessive noise in leisure settings. So what better time for audiologists and speech-language pathologists to educate on safe listening—raising their own profile and that of the professions—while contributing to public health. ASHA-YouGov polling of parents ASHA kicked off its own efforts on this front by releasing results of a national poll on Dec. 3. Conducted under the auspices of ASHA’s Healthy Communication & Popular Technology Initiative, the poll queried more than 1,100 parents of children under age 18 about hearing and safe listening related to personal technology devices. Here are some of the findings: Seven in 10 parents are concerned about their child developing hearing damage from listening to popular technology devices such as music players, tablets, and smartphones. 86% think their children listen to their devices at volumes that are too loud. 82% of parents say they ask their child to turn down the volume at least sometimes, with 25% reporting they do so “frequently” and 19% “all the tim...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Advocacy Audiology Events Health Care News Private Practice Schools Slider Hearing Assistive Technology hearing loss Source Type: blogs