According to WHO’s analysis report released on March 2, 2021, there are 1 in 4 people will have a hearing problem by 2050, it’s a global problem now that we should pay extreme attention to our newborns at the very beginning.
Some young guys prefer to listen to an MP3 player at full volume, in that situation, they can shut the outside down, and keep the noisy world far away. Well, they did not realize their hearing was impaired over time with so high volume play. Particularly, such problems were happening to kids, and babies without their notice at all.
Toys are not toys for kids, it’s a must-have tools during their development, I mean we (adults) perceive them as toys, but our young kids regard them as tools to explore something new and discover something for fun. Hence; picking a good toy for kids is not a simple job, it is a very serious task. For example; when we select some musical toys, we should pay close attention to the sound performance, there are so many toy noises playing around the kids that are damaging their hearing.
Because most toys are perceived as cheap stuff, parents won’t spend much pennies on toys for kids, even spare some quality time on toy selection. That should be the past. For now, we have learned so much more than ever, and know more than ever about education, children's development, and how baby development plays a crucial role when they grow up. Let's get down to what sound level is great for babies' hearing, which is the basic rule when we design a toy. We are not creating something trash, we are building a nice tool for our loved little ones.
We also realized some parents would use glue or tape to cover the toy speaker to mute the sound, it looks good idea. Because those toys someone bought already, it’s not good to throw them away. But why not consider such concerns when we get our design started?
More than that, imagine why we are so picky about sound performance when we buy digital players, home entertainment systems, car speakers, etc. We care about the bass performance and hate muffled sound output, The same for our kids, they just do not know how to pick, and that’s the job we should do. A good sound toy is not about the sound volume, we should take the sound quality, bass performance, and the volume as well to our design stage.
Finally, keep in mind that the sound volume at 60dB or less is very important during long-time play for kids and protects our babies against NIHL(Noise-induced hearing loss) during their growth stage.
Here is the hearing chart for reference, hope it helps you something when you select toys for your loved ones.
If necessary, use a baby hearing protector when babies are often exposed to loud sounds.
Jetech Team Development