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Parenting Pearls
The Jewish Home | JULY 28, 2022 Parenting Pearls Protecting the Youngest of Ears
By Sara Rayvych, MSEd
Iwas a first time mom attending the wedding of a family friend. Holding my little baby, I enjoyed watching the dancing in front of me. The music was so loud that I almost missed the woman next to me trying to get my attention. She quickly explained that I was standing too close to the speakers and that the music was far too loud for my infant’s ears. As the wife of a musician, she was familiar with chasunah noise levels and their danger to infant hearing.
To this day, I am grateful that she raised my awareness on this issue. As someone who has seen firsthand the difficulties associated with early hearing loss, I can appreciate the importance of protecting our children’s ears. It is certainly far simpler to prevent the issue than to treat it after the fact. While there are many things that parents can’t prevent, some forms of hearing loss are preventable.
The ear has three parts: the outer, middle, and inner ear. The outer ear funnels the sound towards the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. Those vibrations cause the bones of the middle ear (malleus, incus, and stapes) to move. Those movements continue towards the inner ear (cochlea) and its small sensory hair cells so they can be passed on as electrical impulses to the brain. It is damage to these hair cells that causes hearing loss from loud noise. Once noise reaches 85 dB (decibels) or greater, it can begin to cause this damage.
I’d like to thank the professionals who took the time to review this article, including Judith Millman MA, CCCSLP and Judi Adler Weiss MS, CCC-SLP.
The Importance of Childhood Hearing
The importance of hearing is rather obvious since it’s a major source of information about the world around us. A car horn warns a pedestrian that strayed into oncoming traffic, a lifeguard’s whistle signals aquatic danger, and children enjoy singing their favorite tunes. We use our hearing every day and throughout the day.
Childhood hearing goes even beyond our day-to-day adult hearing needs. As infants are still growing, their brains develop alongside the rest of their body. It is the hearing they experience when young that shapes their brain’s ability to hear and understand auditory stimuli when they’re older. We hear with our ears and brains working together. We need both working optimally and in unison to process auditory stimuli.
Hearing is not only important on its own, but it’s also the foundation for other crucial areas of development. A child needs to hear sounds to develop speech and language. Those skills are further translated into reading, writing and social development. It’s the beginning months and years of a child’s hearing that are the most critical time period.
Hearing Screenings
Hearing screenings are first done at birth and later by your pediatrician. They are a simple way to ensure your child is hearing optimally. Additional screenings can be easily arranged should you have any concerns about your child’s hearing. There are local audiologists, otolaryngologists (ENTs), and other professionals that specialize in pediatric clients and can provide clarity to any hearing concerns.
Signs that your child should be evaluated include hearing ringing, roaring or hissing sounds, needing to have things repeated, speaking loudly unnecessarily, and failing to respond to unexpected, loud noises.
Hearing Protection for All Ages
All of us need our ears and can get overwhelmed by loud noises. Infants and young children, in particular, are easily overstimulated by sound. Some children are more sensitive than others, and children with a variety of situations, including ADHD and sensory issues, can quickly have trouble coping in loud environments. They may get scared, overwhelmed, or just frustrated.
Situations that seem benign to an adult may seem frightening to a youngster. Fireworks are loud, confusing, and unnerving. Concert music, while enjoyable to us, may not seem like anything but noise to a child. Large crowds can be incredibly overstimulating to a young person. When viewing the world from the youngest of places, sounds can be interpreted very differently.
Alternatively, teenagers may not realize how loud their music sounds. We may need to remind our older children to protect themselves from loud sounds being pumped directly into their ears, especially when they’re wearing headphones. When we were younger, headphones were mostly for use with Walkmans or other music players. Today,
electronics are everywhere, and kids often use headphones or earbuds with them. Alongside the increased use of headphones and earbuds, we need increased vigilance to ensure the volume is kept low enough to protect our youth’s hearing.
Keep the Noise Down
We live in a very loud world. I’m not referring to the noises Hashem made in nature but to the excessively loud ones we’ve artificially created. Baruch Hashem, our lives are full of simchas and other Jewish celebrations; it’s only natural that music accompanies those events. Alternatively, during times of mourning – such as the Three Weeks – we specifically exclude music as a means of acknowledging our sadness.
Many letters to the editor have been written bemoaning the noise volume at Jewish events. A choshuve rebbetzin shared with me that her esteemed husband has lost part of his hearing from attending so many chasunahs. Baruch Hashem for simchas, but hearing loss is a serious and unnecessary cost to pay.
Simchas are celebrated with music and dancing. Concerts and kumzitzes are not only enjoyable but can be a truly spiritually uplifting event. I am certainly not going to suggest we remove music from Jewish life, nor am I going to say we deny children this pleasure. The Jewish lifestyle is both a beautiful and joyous one, and music is a major part of that. But music need not be excessively loud to be enjoyable. I can say from personal experience that by our sons’ bar
mitzvahs we requested the music be kept a bit lower. Our musician was happy to oblige. The dancing was lively, while our guests commented on how much they enjoyed being able to hear each other.
If you’re the baal simcha, then I wish you a hearty “mazel tov!” You can certainly request a lower volume to ensure the safety and comfort of all your guests. As a friend told me, adults enjoy hearing each other during conversations and can’t politely wear earplugs. Your guests will thoroughly enjoy your simcha and the music – even at a lower volume.
If you’re a guest attending with young ones, then you still have options. Please don’t keep your children near the speakers where the volume is loudest. Bring noise-canceling headphones to protect their hearing. It may take some initial distraction techniques to keep
those headphones on your little one’s head, but it’s well worth the effort.
Noise-canceling headphones are a simple method to protect a lifetime of hearing. I invested in a pair of these headphones for my youngest, and it’s been well worth the minimal cost. They’re great not only for simchas but also for accompanying me to the gym and anywhere else the volume gets turned up. I’ve even heard of parents using them for fireworks and other events.
For those that only require baby headphones (ages birth-2 years) for occasional use, there are gemachim available to provide this basic, yet important means of protecting your child’s hearing. Just book in advance of the date, and a pair of small headphones can be reserved for your little one. We are fortunate to have a number of local headphone gemachim, including one in Far Rockaway (718) 309-3218, Lawrence (347) 515-0173, Cedarhurst (516) 5821985, North Woodmere (718) 869-4468 and Woodmere (516) 592-8980. There are even headphone gemachim throughout the world should you have a simcha out-of-town.
We often fail to appreciate how much we rely on our hearing. Sound is a basic simcha that we should treasure. Let’s take the simple steps now to ensure we and our families can enjoy a lifetime of future hearing.
Have a wonderful Shabbos and enjoy the sounds of the zemiros!
Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at RayvychHomeschool@gmail.com.
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