Does your child turn up the volume on the television or radio, even though everyone else can hear just fine? Does your child say "what?" or "huh?" repeatedly? Other symptoms reported included perceiving voices as muffled and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.

It's the kind of hearing loss typically found in old people, not kids.

It could be their ear-bud headphones, according to the poll released March 14. Ear-bud headphones, like the ones typically used with iPods and other portable music players, project sound directly into the ear canal instead of the music being diffused by traditional earmuff-style headphones.

Sound levels are measured in decibels. Generally, decibel levels fewer than 80 or so are not harmful to hearing. But a blaring MP3 player can put out levels in excess of 100 decibels, and children sometimes stay plugged in for hours.

Lynette Cook is the nurse at Lowell Elementary School in Phoenix. Like generations of mothers, she yells across the house for her children to turn down the volume of their music, only they're not listening to stereos. They're rocking out to music on tiny iPods, listening through wee speakers tucked into their ears.

Hearing damage occurs when loud sounds destroy tiny hair cells in the inner ear. These cells convert sound waves into electrical impulses and send them to the brain. Destroy just 25 to 30 percent of these cells, and hearing loss occurs.

Carmen Lappen, the nurse at South Mountain High in Phoenix, is amazed the children surveyed admitted they had hearing problems. Students at her school love their iPods and other MP3 players. She laughed, "They're not going to tell me they hurt."

Lappen worries when she can hear students' tunes, even when they're wearing ear buds: "If I can hear it, it is way too much for their ears." She won't buy an MP3 player for her 17-year-old.

Apple Computer Inc. has recently introduced a software update for iPods that lets parents set a maximum volume limit on the device.

Lappen and Cook offer age-old advice: "Turn it down!" Or, better yet, "Turn it off!"

By Karina Bland
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0410edhear0410.html