Surprising Reasons Children Wear Headphones
There are several subconscious reasons children love to wear headphones. Some of the reasons will surprise you. Learning to play an instrument is known to improve development cognitively, increase socialization and teamwork skills, and self-discipline. While convenient in today’s society, regular use of headphone negatively affects the development of your child’s brain.
Wearing Headphones, A Coping Behavior
Each of us are prompted subconsciously by our brain to act. I call these actions seeking behaviors. For example, clients rarely thought about why they wore earbuds or headphones while listening to music until our discussion. With strong emotion, some clients shared they started wearing earbuds or headphones to block out distracting sounds. Did they have sound intolerance? However, other clients shared that loud music helped them think and focus. Did they have an under-stimulated hearing system or mild hearing loss?
Wearing Headphones, a Seeking Behavior
When the auditory system needs stimulation because of a weakness in the hearing system, of which there are numerous reasons, listening to music through headphones feels great. The brain feels more awake. The brain also does not have to ignore background competing sounds.
Unfortunately, there is an increased risk of listening at an unsafe volume or for way too many hours each day. Over time, the brain changes in its ability to dampen sounds resulting in even greater desires to wear headphones. What to do? Enjoy music out in the room.
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children
While studying the effects of noise-induced hearing loss in children, a risk with headphone use, Harrison found expressive speech difficulties. Greatly concerned, Harrison emphasized that even when hearing loss is not found in the cochlea, auditory behavioral characteristics like expressive speech difficulties indicate problems within the brain’s auditory processing system. Harrison emphasized the importance of completing additional audiometric testing of Central Auditory Processing Skills .
I believe that each client’s past or ongoing poor ear, nose, and throat health increases their risk of expressive speech difficulties with headphone usage. Why? Because there is already an increased risk of both ears not working well together. I am still amazed by how many sensory systems receive stimulation directly or indirectly from the hearing system.
I developed the preschool and student Moore Auditory-Visual Questionnaires to help you learn if your child has behavioral characteristics of sound sensitivity, auditory processing difficulties, and/or hearing loss. The questions are based on research findings and my experiences working with clients.
Effects of Mild Hearing Loss
Even when the hearing system is mildly under-stimulated by sounds and speech, John Hopkins University researchers found significant difficulties in children.
- Children lagged in vestibular development
- Sadly, untreated hearing loss in children negatively affects all areas of life
- Socializing
- Learning
- Emotional Health, Self-Esteem, Depression
- Expressive Speech
- Relationships within the Family
Due to difficulties listening in noisy environments, clients, who were later found to have hearing loss, shared they avoided social events and group conversations. Instead of risking embarrassment, participants felt emotionally safer staying home.
Protect Your Child’s Hearing
Protect your child’s hearing from noise-induced hearing loss. Researchers still have much to learn about the effects of noise exposure from headphones and earbuds upon a preschooler, child, and teen’s developing auditory processing system within the brain.
In the blog, the Listening Habits Affect the Safety of Earbud and Headphone Usage, I share that researchers found that unsafe listening habits in children, teens, and young adults resulted in hearing loss. Even with normal listening volume levels, wearing headphones or earbuds too often resulted in hearing loss. Thus, your child’s listening volume should be set at about a third of the output of their listing device. Equally important, each day limit how long they use their headphones or earbuds.
If your child is three years of age or younger, Dr. Berard warns against the use of headphones (1). Even after age three, Dr. Berard cautions against using headphones for more than thirty minutes at a time (1). The best choice for your child’s hearing system is to enjoy sound out in the room.
Parents, Limit Your Child’s Headphone Volume and Usage
Infants and toddlers should never wear headphones! Instead, play the music out in the room. If you have older children who like to listen to music while playing or riding their bike, purchase a waterproof armband for your cell phone through Amazon, at Walmart, Target, or your local sporting goods store. Help your loved ones listen to music and play while also protecting their ears.
Teach Safe Listening Habits When They Must Listen With Headphones
When loud environmental sounds make it too difficult to listen with earbuds and headphones, teach your child to:
- Take the headphones off
- Pause what they are listening to and leave to find a quiet place
- Finish listening later
Set and Lock the Volume on Your Devices
For an Apple device: iPhone Video
- Go to Settings
- First, Tap Sounds & Haptics; other iPhone models have just Sounds
- Next, turn on Reduce Loud Sounds
- Then, drag the slider to choose the maximum decibel level for headphone audio
Guidelines for Setting the Volume with Headphones
Initially, start with about a fourth of the possible output of the device in a quiet environment. Children ages six to twelve should listen to no more than a third of the possible output. If they choose a higher volume and seek sound stimulation, but also complain when others are loud, I encourage you to complete a Moore Auditory Visual Questionnaire.
Set the Volume on Playing Devices
After your child plays a game using headphones, do you find they respond with irritation when you talk to them? If so, you need to turn down the volume on their gaming device & limit their playing time to thirty minutes. Set a timer and teach them to listen to their body. In fact, most gaming devices have a warning encouraging players to limit their playing time to thirty minutes.
Set Parental Controls and Spending Limits on PlayStation
Set Parental Controls for Xbox360
Nintendo Switch Parental Control Mobile App Watch the video.
Some parental controls are available within the Nintendo gaming system.
References
- Berard, G. (1993). Hearing Equals Behavior. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing.
- Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the Univ. of Alberta. (2011). Human brain development does not stop at adolescence: Research. University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry,
- Fligor, B., (2009). Personal listening devices and hearing loss: seeking evidence of a long term problem through a successful short-term investigation. Noise and Health, 11(44),
129-131. - Harrison, R. (2008). Noise-induced hearing loss in children: A ‘less than silent’ environmental danger. Pediatrics & Child Health, 13(5), 377-382.
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