Noisy Toys — Shop Smart

Yup, I’m going to shop smart this year … call family and pals to find out what’s on their list that might possibly be in my budget.    For the little ones, I usually buy clothes — takes some time getting sizes, styles and colors right but that’s what I do.  I often thought how much easier it would be to just buy the age appropriate toy and be done with it.   But it turns out I’m way wrong about that.   Toy shopping can be mighty daunting when you want to be smart.  And the crazy thing is that with my history of progressive hearing loss, I never much thought of the issue of toys and noise.

The point is that manufacturers are making toys that can make our children deaf.   When I was growing up all those years ago, I had no idea that noise causes hearing loss.   Today we know that one in 8 students has a measurable hearing loss because of the high volumes they’re exposed to.  We’ve learned that every age group is slammed with surround sound at the movies, amplified concerts and noisy restaurants.  So today there are 35 million Americans of all ages with hearing loss.

And now, this year especially, I’m reading about our toddlers at risk.  Noisy toys’ll do it.  In fact you can google ‘loud toys at Amazon’ for good deals and a store in Los Angeles that features drums and percussion called ‘Noisy Toys.’   I’m beyond amazed that manufacturers are not required to put a decibel number on those toys.  There’s simply no protection for our infants and toddlers who love to put those screaming siren sounds right up to their ears.

What can we do?  For now, it would seem we’re on our own to determine how decibel appropriate a toy sound is.  I got my first decibel meter at Radio Shack for $50 — it’s easy and fun to use and you can bet I’ll be using it to check out the sound levels of toys under the tree.  Awareness is a beginning until we can convince toy makers to help their shoppers shop smart.

For more information on hearing loss in America and community service projects that will increase local awareness, see our Empowerment Through Hearing site: www.hearingconnection.org.  And read about our book, ‘Listen Up!” www.listenupkids.com, published in 2008 and found in schools throughout Palm Beach County.