As an ASHA audiologist, in addition to helping people of all ages with hearing difficulties, you advocate for helping individuals prevent acquired hearing loss. In honor of World Hearing Day, we’re featuring articles that can help all ASHA members promote safe listening and help children and adolescents with hearing loss.
Promoting Safe Listening
One highlight of this year’s World Hearing Day focuses on new global standards for safe listening in video game play and e-sports. Read below for more on recreational noise exposure and how researchers can safely measure it.
Associations Between Recreational Noise Exposure and Hearing Function in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review: Noise-induced hearing loss from listening to loud sounds is a large concern in adolescents and young adults. In this review, the authors found that listening to loud media resulted in short-term hearing changes and suggested that additional research on the long-term effects of recreational noise is needed.
Development and Validation of an Efficient and Safe Loud Music Exposure Paradigm: These authors introduced a novel way to expose participants to loud music levels without risking permanent hearing loss. Read about this safe and time-efficient paradigm that you can use when studying music-induced hearing loss.
Helping Children and Adolescents With Hearing Loss
Of course, you also play an important role helping the thousands of children and adolescents in the United States who already have hearing loss. Learn more about young people with hearing loss and how you can support them through your work.
Audiograms and Prevalence of Hearing Loss in U.S. Children and Adolescents 6–19 Years of Age: Understanding hearing loss prevalence in children ages 6–19 is important to providing quality services to these individuals. In this study of more than 2,700 children and adolescents, researchers found a hearing loss prevalence of 11%, with no significant difference in sex, race, and ethnicity.
Adolescent-Centered mHealth Applications in a Collaborative Care Model: A Virtual Focus Group Study With Audiologists: Mobile health has become a viable method for delivering hearing health care, but few studies have focused on its utility outside of adult populations. Find out how age-specific use patterns, outcomes, and design can help you implement mobile health care in adolescents.
Predictors of Listening-Related Fatigue in Adolescents With Hearing Loss: Adolescents with hearing loss face additional challenges in school related to listening fatigue, even if their hearing loss is mild or they use hearing devices. Learn how you can help students combat listening fatigue in schools.
Changing Mindsets
The theme of World Hearing Day is once again “Changing Mindsets”—focusing on the work you do every day to make ear and hearing care for all a reality. This includes encouraging individuals to protect their hearing, check their hearing, and use hearing devices if needed. You can find more resources on the official World Hearing Day website, including the aforementioned safe video game standards.
We understand the importance of advocating for and helping people with hearing loss year round, which is why we publish hundreds of articles for audiologists on ASHAWire every year! Check out our trending articles—or use our advanced search feature to find exactly what you’re looking for.
