March Hearing Awareness Month

World Hearing Day is an annual campaign observed in March in over 100 countries worldwide, drawing attention to the importance of ear and hearing care as a fundamental aspect of overall health and well-being. Governments, healthcare providers, and advocacy groups come together to raise awareness, promote early detection, and encourage hearing health practices to prevent avoidable hearing loss. 

The campaign highlights the critical role that hearing plays in communication, education, employment, and social inclusion. Despite the progress made, over 80% of the world's ear and hearing care needs remain unmet, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)*. 

Globally, school-age children with hearing loss often remain undiagnosed and without access to needed services (World report on hearing, 2021). Hearing loss affects around 90 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 years, across all parts of the world (Global burden of disease study, 2021). However, it commonly remains undetected, especially in low-resource settings.

I did not think we would have many books to support this topic, but I was wrong. Yesterday a friend who kindly volunteers in my school library and I collected together books for a display. Among them were:

And this series of short chapter books about Lizzie and her dog Lucky.

18th August Science Week Part 2 Noise and sounds

In 1998 ABC Science built the first National Science Week website to provide information to event holders and audiences, they have conducted an annual online participatory science project since 2000 and promote the week widely across their networks.  The 2023 school theme is Innovation: Powering Future Industries, but the ABC has taken 'noise' as their focus and they want people  to eavesdrop on the animal kingdom and  explore the wonder and science of bioacoustics.

Listening in all facets of life is important but it is wonderful to be able to go outside, be still and just listen. What will you hear? Hopefully some natural noises, such as cicadas, frogs, birds, running water, waves.

As background to going on a listening walk you could use one of these books as provocation:

• What Can You Hear Today?  by Louise Bladen and angela Perrini

• The Listening Walk  by Paul Showers and Aliki

• Listen to Our World  by Bill Martin Jr and Melissa Sweet

• Listen to the Rain  by Bill Martin Jr and James Endicott

And after your walk and comparing lists you could follow up with books about some of the sounds:

• Cicada Sing Song by Pat Simmons and Kate Dreiling

• Cicada Symphony by Sue Fliess and Gareth Lucas

• Noisy Bug Sing-along  by John Himmelman

• The Dawn Chorus  by Suzanne Barton

• The Forgotten Song  by Coral Vass and Jess Racklyeft

• Sounds all Around Us  by Ryhia Dank

• Sounds All Around  by Susan Hughes and Ellen Rooney

• The Sounds Around Town  by Maria Callucio

You could just read a couple of favourites about noise such as:

• Noisy Night by Mac Barnett and Brian Biggs

• Too Much Noise  by Ann McGovern and Simms Taback

Or you could segue to the winning Early Childhood Book Where the Lyrebird Lives  by Vikki Conley and Max Hamilton and talk about mimicry because lyrebirds are masters of mimicry.

Lyrebirds are capable of imitating almost any sound. As well as their own calls, clicks and song, you will usually hear them mimicking loud clear sounds made by other birds and mammals, including humans. They have been heard to mimic the sounds of chainsaws, horns, alarms and even trains.

                                          

18th July Listening Day

World Listening Day is hosted every year by the World Listening Project, a nonprofit organisation that is “devoted to understanding the world and its natural environment, societies, and cultures through the practice of listening and field recording.” They explore acoustic ecology, a discipline that studies the relationship between humans and the natural world as mediated through sound. So quiet down, open up your ears, and get ready to study soundscapes on World Listening Day.

World Listening Day falls on July 18th  to honour the birthday of Raymond Murray Schafer, a Canadian composer and environmentalist who is seen as the founder of acoustic ecology. Born on July 18, 1933, he developed his World Soundscape Project, which laid the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. Each year there is a theme. 2022 is Listening Across Boundaries

To make this concept simple enough for young children, I have chosen to just isolate books where the focus is on listening with purpose.

Start with this oldie, but goodie The Listening Walk  by Paul Showers and Aliki

which reminds both adults and kids of the wonders all around them...if they slow down and listen. 

A little girl and her father take a quiet walk and identify the sounds around them. Soon the girl discovers an extraordinary world of sounds in her everyday environment.

Then Listen, Listen by Phil Gershator and Alison Jay

Listen to the sounds of the year - from summer's sizzling sun to winter's crackling snow.

The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Taylor

When you know "the other way to listen," you can hear the wild-flower seed bursting open. You hear rocks murmuring and hills singing, and it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it takes a lot of practice, and you can't be in a hurry. Most people never hear these things at all. 

Listen  by Gaby Snyder and Stephanie Graegin

Isn't the world a noisy place?
But what if you
stop, close your eyes,
and LISTEN?

Listen to Our World by Bill Martin Jr, Michael Sampson and Melissa Sweet

Big, small, black, brown-all kinds of animals make their home in our world. From the jungle to the mountains, the desert to the ocean, listen and you just might hear the sounds they make! 

Listen by Holly M. McGhee and Paul Lemaitre

Listen teaches us to engage our senses, to taste, see, and feel in order to engage with the world around us. 

Listen to the Birds  by Ana Gerhard and Cecilia Varela

In addition to lovely illustrations, the book features a glossary of musical terms, a short biography of each composer, and a brief description of each bird evoked or mentioned in the composition.

While not strictly about listening, this book Listen by Shannon Stocker and Devon Holzwarth is about a deaf girl who wanted to play percussion.

As a child, Evelyn Glennie's ears began to hurt. Voices became distant whispers. Ringing phones sounded like muffled crunches in her ears. But when she was told that she would need to wear hearing aids for the rest of her life, Evelyn was determined that this this would never stop her from playing music.

While not about listening to nature, it is about why listening can be important.

How Do We Listen by Jenna Laffin

Listening is a skill we all need. An original song paired with a picture books helps students learn how to listen and why it is important.

Listen Buddy  by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger . While not about listening to nature, it is about why listening can be important.

What Makes a Lemur Listen by Samuel Langley-Swain

Maki doesn't want to listen until he gets lost in the jungle, where a new friend helps him work on his listening skills. 

And I Have just ordered this, Look and Listen by Dianne White and Amy Schimler because the blurb makes it sounds as if it fits the brief too.

A child steps outside and strolls along, taking in the sights and sounds of nature. Rhythmic, rhyming text tracks his journey through a garden, meadow, and next to a brook, introducing a new color and animal found in that ecosystem with every turn of the page, transforming an ordinary walk into a feast for the senses.