As National Hearing Day approaches on March 9, the IFOP and the JNA Association are publishing a disturbing report on children’s hearing health. “Around 1.3 million children under the age of 10 have already consulted an ENT doctor for tinnitus according to their parents and for nearly 660,000 children, a hearing loss moderate to severe was diagnosed”, underlines the press release.
Up to 10 years old, children’s ears are much more fragile than adults’ ears. : “The maturation of the auditory pathways and areas of the brain takes place gradually, from the brainstem to the cortex, and does not end until between the 4th and 8th year of the child”, recalls the association. High frequencies are not heard by children until they are 5 years old, and low sounds are not perceived by children (just like adults) until they are 10 years old.
The recent survey conducted by the IFOP underlines that one in five parents realizes that their child has difficulty understanding speech (18%), and 14% testify that their child under 10 has wheezes or ringing in the ears. The main cause ? The use of headphones and earphones, in 28% of cases: moreover 40% of parents believe that their child uses them every day. Next come Ile-de-France residents (23%), the children of workers (19%).
25% of children under 10 have hearing loss
What is diagnosed in ENT is very worrying according to doctors: 44% of parents come out of it when they learn that their child has hearing loss, for 32% it is mild, for 10% it is average, and for 2% severe. Of all 10-year-olds, it is estimated that 25% of them have a mild loss.
By the way, a child cannot tell if the sound is loud in the headphones, he must be educated in this matter. Gold “these means of listening, relatively close to the middle and inner ear, exert a strong acoustic pressure on the eardrums and the ossiclesendangering auditory functions, while continually tiring the ear, and therefore the user”, remind the association. Especially since the threshold of these devices is 100 decibels, while the safety limit for hearing aids is 80 decibels.
As a reminder, after 3 years, signs make it possible to realize that the child has hearing problems:
- speech and language delay,
- behavioral problems,
- or learning difficulties.
Source: Study “Hearing issues in children under 10”, IFOP, JNA.
