Excessive noise is not healthy for anyone, but less so for younger children, who are more sensitive to noise and may end up affecting their health. Children exposed to too much noise are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, to have hearing problems or psychological and cognitive disorders.
In a gesture as everyday as set the volume of the television or radio too high There is another added risk if you have a child of learning age to speak: could affect speech development, according to a study published in the journal Child Development.
It was carried out by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 106 children between 22 and 33 months, age at which they are in full acquisition of language. It is crucial that at this age they learn new words, read them and talk to them a lot, since they are internalizing new phrases and forms of expression. This will help them later in their school performance, as well as in their communication with the environment.
This new study suggests that it is not only important to talk to them, but that the environment that benefits learning is the one with little noise and distractions. Turn down the volume or turn off the radio or television at home helps children learn words better.
The scientists carried out three tests that consisted of listening to phrases with two new words while observing the objects of those words and then showed the researchers whether or not they remembered the new vocabulary when they were subjected to loud noises and background voices.
Alone the children who had been exposed to less background noise had successfully learned the new words.
According to Brianna McMillan, a PhD student and lead author of the study,
"Modern homes are full of loud distractions like TV, radio and people talking that could affect the way children learn words at an early age."
