Kids Hearing Kids Campaign

Looking for a sensational idea for your class in broadcasting? Or a fun, challenging way to fulfill a class assignment? We’ve got some great ideas to help you create your own public service announcement (PSA) to broadcast through your in-school network! But first you’ll want to know why your message is so important to you and everyone you know...

Student hearing loss is growing at an alarming rate — that’s usually due to noise like we get from volume-loaded iPods, movies, surround sound, even restaurants and retail outlets — it’s all damaging. More than 1 in 10 students has some form of hearing loss, so it’s a common condition in our schools today.

KIDS HEARING KIDS is a message campaign with a mission to educate students about causes of hearing loss and ways to prevent it.

How do we know if it’s too loud? Here are some thoughts: Video arcades, headsets/ear buds at high volume, fire crackers, discos, rock concerts, rockin’ retail outlets, movie theaters, sporting events, motorcycles, snowmobiles, boomin’ car radios.

Noise causes hearing loss, and that’s a fact all of us need to be more aware of in our high-tech world. Empowerment Through Hearing is asking kids to help take this message to students throughout the U.S.

Some ideas to start creating your own PSA:

• Causes of hearing loss: noise, antibiotics, virus, a simple blow to the head
• Ways to prevent hearing loss: avoid damaging noise, use noise-reduction ear plugs
• Difficulties facing the student with hearing loss: misses teacher instructions, plays announced quickly in a huddle or on the sidelines, warnings from refs, whispered words from pals…

Check out what kids did at the Palm Beach Day School, in Palm Beach FL, to help educate fellow students about the causes and prevention of hearing loss. Their efforts attracted the interest of the Palm Beach Daily News, as you will see in this link: CLICK HERE (20kb .pdf).

You can help to alert fellow students of the importance of hearing health and how to preserve it. Send me an email mail@hearingconnection.org if you want to let me know what you’re doing or how you’re doing it. We’d love to hear from you. Good luck!

— Kathlyn