Sound safety | Integrated Learning Therapy

Sound and hearing are vital aspects of being human, learning and functioning optimally in the world. If our ability to hear is hampered, the effects are widespread. A weakened auditory system may result in auditory sequential processing problems. This affects short-term memory – the important ability to link pieces of auditory information. Auditory processing can also lead to difficulties focusing listening – another symptom of auditory dysfunction. These weaknesses negatively affect communication, language learning and attention skills. It seems reasonable, in the light of this, to ensure that your child is ‘sound safe’.

There are two primary forms of hearing and listening impairment[1]. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) occurs when protracted loud sounds damage the inner ear. The delicate cilia hair cells in the inner ear are destroyed and cannot be repaired.

In addition, stress can interfere with the way we absorb sound. This is called Stress-induced auditory dysfunction (SIAD). An expert in auditory impairment claims that “Poor listening can begin at any age and for any number of reasons. “It might result from a health problem, an accident, a major lifestyle disruption or from stress.”

Hearing loss, be it noise or stress induced, with the addition of auditory dysfunction, can result in muddled thinking and out-of-balance emotions. For this reason, we need to become more sound aware. Sound can be healing, comforting and an aid to learning. In the form of noise, it can also disturb us and negatively affect our functioning. We need to help our children take precautions to protect their ears.

The word noise comes from the Latin nausea meaning seasickness. Noise generally refers to any loud, unmusical or disagreeable sound. Your classification of noise will, of course, depend on your subjective opinion. What you call loud and noisy may reflect your audiological health and personal taste. What I call unmusical and disagreeable depends entirely on my taste in music; one person’s noise is another’s delight.

Nevertheless, noise damages ears. Acoustic trauma happens when an extremely loud sound strikes in an instant. One blast from an explosion can rip apart the ears’ inner tissues, leaving scars that cause permanent damage. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) develops more insidiously over a period of time. Repeated or extended exposure to dangerous noise levels attacks the delicate sensory cells in the ear. Their function is to transport airborne vibrations from the inner ear to the brain. Without them, hearing is inefficient. In addition, loud sounds cause constriction of blood vessels in the cochlea, which is the hearing organ in the inner ear. A lack of a proper blood supply may result in damaging changes in the inner ear.

For these reasons, workplaces try to protect workers from hazardous noise levels, but what is being done to protect children?

In human adults, 80 dB is the maximum sound intensity that will not produce hearing loss. Above 85 dB, you run a risk of damage which worsens with length of exposure and higher dB levels.

Here is a table showing the decibel levels of common noises:

Watch ticking – 20 decibels

Whisper – 30 decibels

Average conversation – 40 decibels

Dishwasher, microwave – 60 decibels

City traffic – 70 decibels

Noisy restaurant – 70 decibels

Vacuum cleaner – 80 decibels

Busy city pavement – 80 decibels

Then we move into danger zones:

Lawn mower – 90 decibels

Screaming child – 90 decibels

Power drill or chain saw – 100 decibels

Blow dryer – 100 decibels

Car hooter – 110 decibels

Noisy video arcade – 110 decibels

Rock concert – 100–130 decibels

Jet engine at 40 metres – 140 decibels

Jackhammer – 180 decibels

While we can cope with a certain amount of noise (if our auditory system is healthy), we should avoid prolonged exposure. The next table shows a 1984 standard of noise-level safety based on decibels and time-exposure levels. It was created for the workplace and the duration per day may be higher than what is truly healthy for your children’s ears.

90 decibels – not more than 8 hours

92 decibels – not more than 6 hours

100 decibels – not more than 2 hours

102 decibels – not more than 1.5 hours

115 decibels – not more than 0.25 or less hours

So how do you teach your children sound safety? You don’t want to be paranoid but neither do you want them to innocently damage their wonderful auditory systems. The result of damage is not always hearing loss; sometimes damage substitutes sounds for others and they are replaced with tinnitus, or ringing or buzzing sounds in the head. Hearing damage is not something to take lightly.

Here are some precautionary measures:

Limit exposure to sounds over 85 decibels. If you have to be exposed for longer, wear ear protection. Ear plugs must be worn to really noisy events such as rock concerts or firework displays. Earplugs are made of foam, silicone or wax and are designed to reduce noise levels from between 20 to 30 dB. Cotton wool doesn’t effectively diminish excessive sound waves.
When using headphones, do the following: Keep the volume down. If your child listens with headphones to music with a ten-digit volume wheel set at 4 or higher, hearing loss may result. Limit listening to one hour at a time and let the ears rest. Be very careful if using headphones when exercising.
Give the ears a rest. Alternate quiet and noisy activities. Don’t go to a noisy party or club after a loud sports event.

Our ears don’t actually bleed after a blast of fireworks or a rock concert. That doesn’t mean that we have incurred self-inflicted damage. Our society is an increasingly noisy one. Sound pollution means that we have to teach our children to be aware of sound and to practice sound safety.

Integrated Learning Therapy (ILT) practitioners take a keen interest in auditory functioning. If you would like to read more about our approach, visit our website www.ilt.co.za. We also have a list of practitioners around this country and others.

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[1] Joshua Leeds. 2001. The power of sound. Vermont: Healing Arts Press

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.