Ear Defenders for young children

cruthe

Hi there,
 I'm a final year student in product design and I'm looking into ear defenders for young children, I want to make them something more desirable and comfortable to wear. Was wondering if anyone had any experience with them or just general things perhaps when using them that could be of help? perhaps how many people don't use them? and if kids tend to take them off?
Would appreciate any feedback thank you for your time.

Caitlin.

Sam_Scope

Hi @cruthe welcome to the community and I hope you get some ideas here that help.  

@VickiKirwin do you have any ideas?

VickiKirwin

Hi Caitlin

Sounds like a very interesting topic to investigate further! I have blogged about the type and range of ear defenders available for babies and young children which you can read about here https://kidsaudiologist.info/2011/09/04/protecting-young-ears-from-noise/ The range is pretty limited. In my experience most children will accept ear defenders if they don't like loud noise (i.e. if they see the benefit of them) but some will not wear them consistently if they are quite happy listening in loud noise (i.e. those wearing them purely to protect their hearing). There are also some children who have particular difficulties accepting any type of headwear, headphones, ear defenders etc, such as some children who are on the autistic spectrum. Happy to discuss further if you'd like too. Otherwise, good luck with your project.

Vicki

Sam_Scope

Brill! Thanks @VickiKirwin

Hope this helps @cruthe

Fundamentalist

Hi from Fm. I have suffered severe misophonia, or 4S syndrome since birth and it absolutely destroyed my childhood and I couldn't have any friends because of it and I still suffer with it now after 50-odd years and in my experience ear defenders don't work at all. And neither does a "Walkman" on full blast, everything just goes right through it. There is something else you could try called noise cancelling headphones but I don't know if they really work at all as I've never tried them and I don't know if there's any available to fit a child. Fm.