Is this dangerous?

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My son is hyposensitive to sound. His hearing has been checked and it's fine, but he's constantly craving sound. He'll run back to a toy to push a button and then go back to what he was doing just to keep the music going. What concerns me is he often holds toys up right against his ear. I'm really worried that this could damage his hearing because I find the toys very loud even when they aren't up against my ear. Does anyone else's kid do this? Should I be worried about his hearing? Because even though he craves the noise, he doesn't have any trouble hearing the littlest things. And if it is dangerous for his hearing, I have no idea what to do about it because there isn't much I can do to stop him.

Best to ask your doctor this question

Yep, I agree that you should speak to your doctor about this, or Occupational or Speech Therapist if he has one.

If this does turn out to be harmful, then take those toys away from him or take the batteries out and work on finding a safer alternative for him.

We don't exactly have this problem but for loud toys in general I put duct tape over the speaker and that muffles it some. I would also suggest giving him a safer alternative like an ipod or something. There is a way to set tbe maximum volume on the little ipod shuffles my kids have. It keeps them from listening to music too loud.

This is brilliant, thank you so much for this idea. I wasn't too keen on taking away all his music toys since he loves them so much. I'm going to use this trick to muffle the sound.

I would worry that it would damage his hearing, but I don't know, so I'd ask his doctor.

He may just grow up into one of those guys who likes to stand near the speakers at Who concerts because it's so loud. I think that a lot of people do like certain sounds loud. I can't listen to metal unless it's loud, but too loud gives me a headache. It didn't used to though.

In my younger days, I went to a lot of concerts and now I have issues with tinnitus. Overly loud noises are nothing to fool around with.

I don't have any hearing loss except what comes with being 48. I used to listen to loud music in the car every time I drove somewhere, up until my early 20s. Then I would still enjoy some loud music when it was possible, which wasn't that often with kids around. I do still like loud music sometimes, but I can only stand it for a few songs, if it's in the car or at someones house. If it's a band I know and like and I'm at a bar or a concert, I love it still, but I do start getting a headache or just nervous from it after a while.

Some things just can't be played soft though.

I was thinking about the suggestion that the OP got about duct tape over the speaker of toys, and I was wondering if there is any way to fiddle with the toys to make them not play as loud, in case he starts taking off the duct tape. If nobody here knows, maybe somebody in the computers and technology forum might have a suggestion?

Depending on the toy you could possibly open it up and put the duct tape on the inside and screw it back shut again.

[I started working on this post last night, prior to folks posting about duct tape, etc.; a good idea, I think. The only thing that gives me pause is concern about the tape being removed and ingested. Tape (adhesive) can be toxic. The follow up post suggesting that the toy is opened up and tape adhered to the inside of the device would get around this concern nicely. Regarding another post about electronically modifying the device: this could be done, but the time required to do this probably isn't worth it. It would require tracing the internal circuits of the toy and installing--potentially--an additional resistor in-line before the audio signal reaches the speaker or speaker-amplifier. So yeah, time consuming, but fun for those nerdy, soldering types. One final, new thought, is that devices do exist that limit the output of devices with headphone outputs. As another poster mentioned, iPods--and some other devices--have this feature built-in. Other don't.]

Is there any way you could muffle the sound by affixing some sort of audio-absorbing material to the toy's speaker? You'd want to make sure you used safe material(s), but that could be an option is your child is particularly attached to that toy.

Another, perhaps even more drastic option would be to mechanically/electrically modify the toy to limit its audio output, but I understand that this is not a realistic course of action for most people.

I hope that you find a solution you are comfortable with.

Regards.

[My credentials: self-diagnosed AS, probably w/ OCD, too; definite hyper-sensitivity to sound; was yelled at by his parents growing up for playing his headphones and/or car stereo way too loud and now works in the audio-video industry and, thankfully, still possesses acute hearing].

That's true, I hadn't thought about the possibility that he might take off the tape. I'll try it and see. Some of his toys have volume settings but not all. He doesn't have a deep attachment to most of them so I guess as a last resort I could get rid of the loudest ones at least. Although his favorite is a police car and he absolutely loves that thing, rolls it right next to his head and it's the loudest one. So hopefully I'm able to muffle it somehow. I wish I was one of those people who had all the tech skills to fiddle with his toys, that would be so cool.

you might look for an app like this

http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/a ... ise-levels

I haven't really tried any and don't have any opinion on how they work, but it might be an option to test the toy's decibel level.