Friday, September 21, 2012

Starkey Hearing Foundation Teams with Scholastic to Promote Youth Hearing Protection

Starkey Hearing Foundation and Scholastic have partnered to develop classroom materials and a public service video to promote the message to American youth that "Hearing is fragile. So don't listen loudly. Listen Carefully."

Children and teens are at an increased risk of hearing loss. Listening to music and playing video games at dangerously high levels, Starkey says, is the primary culprit. In fact, one in five teens suffers from noised-induced hearing loss caused by improper use of personal listening devices--a 31% increase since the mid-1990s.

In response to these alarming statistics, the two organizations developed the Listen Carefully Teaching Guide, which is designed to teach students in grades 6 through 8 about the science of hearing while also allowing them to perform hearing-related experiments. Educators can access the free materials online.