Study Shows Kids Wake to Mom's Voice, Not Smoke Alarms
Monday October 2, 2006 08:55:23
By JoANNE VIVIANO

Children in deep sleep awoke to recordings of their
mothers' voices calling them by name and ordering
them out of their bedrooms even if they slept through
the beeping sound a smoke alarm makes, according to a
small study.

The study reaffirms previous research that shows what
works for adults does not always work for children,
said Dr. Gary Smith, one of the co-authors.

"Clearly, the strategy that has been tried and true
and used for years ... fails miserably for children,"
said Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research
and Policy at Columbus Children's Hospital.

The study of 24 children ages 6 to 12 found that 23
awoke to the recorded voice of their mother saying
"(Child's first name)! (Child's first name)! Wake up!
Get out of bed! Leave the room!"
   14 of the children also awoke to the traditional
   tone alarm.
   1 child did not wake up to either.

The children who woke up to the voice did so at a
median time of 20 seconds, compared with three minutes
for those who woke up to the tone, according to the
study by Columbus Children's Hospital researchers
being released Monday in Pediatrics.

Both alarms were created using a large speaker and
sounds measuring 100 decibels, about four times louder
than levels used in standard home alarms, Smith said.

The next step, he said, is to determine why children
responded to the voice alarm differently, whether they
were responding to their names, their mothers' voices
or the frequency at which the sound was delivered,
which was lower than the frequency of a beeping alarm.

Nancy Baron of Columbus said her daughter Maddie, who
was 8 at the time of the study, awoke to the voice
alarm in 15 to 20 seconds but slept through the tone
alarm, while neither alarm woke her son Rhys, who was 7.

"I was totally shocked," Baron said. "It was actually
a little frightening to think what would happen if
this was real."

Funding for the study came from a grant from the Ohio
Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency
Medical Services and the Ohio Emergency Medical
Services Board.

A safety expert said the study was a start.

"We have a piece of the puzzle now and we're really
happy someone has taken up this research and we hope
it moves forward," said John Drengenberg, manager of
consumer affairs for Underwriters Laboratories Inc.,
an independent organization that certifies safety
for consumer products.

The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that 3,300
fatal fires killed 3,380 people (not including
firefighters) in 2005, with 14 percent of victims
younger than 10.  Smoke alarms were not present in
42 percent of residential fatal fires; alarms did
not operate in 21 percent.

Drengenberg said statistics show that no children
have died because they didn't wake up to a smoke alarm.

"What we do know is parents instinctively ... will go
to a child's room and grab a child out of the crib or
out of the bed," he said.
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On the Net:
Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org/

... Joan of Arc heard voices too.
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