Development of a Hearing Conservation Program for Elementary Schools

Abstract

Purpose Despite evidence supporting the positive implications of hearing conservation programs (HCPs) on hearing loss prevention among children, healthy hearing habits are often not taught in schools. To address the need for more hearing health education in schools, we investigated the feasibility of a teacher-implemented HCP and its impact on fourth-grade students. Method A speech-language pathology graduate student trained a science teacher from a local elementary school to implement a modified version of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's HCP, Listen to Your Buds , to 56 fourth-grade students. After completing a pre-intervention questionnaire, students received a 45-min interactive HCP, with posttesting occurring immediately afterward and 4 weeks later. Students answered questions to measure their hearing-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as a result of participation in the HCP. Results Immediately following the program, students' knowledge of potentially damaging noises increased, as well as did their attitudes toward noise exposure. Students' responses remained similar one month after the HCP as well. However, few students reported behavioral changes related to potentially damaging noise exposure. Conclusions A single 45-min intervention did not appear to change students' intentions for future behaviors regarding healthy hearing habits; however, results indicate that students increased their knowledge and improved their attitudes, which may indeed impact future behavior when confronted with potentially damaging noise exposure. Although Listen to Your Buds materials are no longer accessible online, we provide recommendations for school-based speech-language pathologists and educational audiologists to develop and implement an HCP in their school.