ASHA Launches National Contests to Combat the Common and Growing Health Problem
Rockville, MD - April14, 2010 - To help combat the third most common health related problem in America today, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) launched its annual song and drawing contests to educate children 10 and younger about hearing loss prevention. Coinciding with Better Hearing and Speech Month (BHSM), an annual event to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing, ASHA is bringing hearing safety messages directly to children in a kid friendly and timely way.
Both contests are based upon the safe listening principles ASHA's Listen to Your Buds campaign a landmark hearing health awareness campaign and is embraced by millions of parents and children.
Today, nearly 31 million Americans have a hearing loss due to noise, much of it preventable. The ASHA sponsored contests are just two ways the Association provides the necessary education to keep that figure from growing. Yet, this is an especially tall challenge given the recent information about the vast proliferation and exposure to entertainment media - and that's just one example of how the world around us is becoming noisier.
"Protect Your Hearing...You Need It for a Lifetime!" is the theme. The drawing contest is open to students 10 and younger. Original art should be submitted on 8" × 10" paper. Students can use crayons, paints, or anything else they can imagine to express their creative visions about protecting their hearing. First-place artwork will be used to create the screen saver for the 2011 BHSM campaign and the first place artist will receive an MP3 player with noise cancelling headphones provided by Califone International. Winning entries will be featured on the BHSM Web site, and winners will receive a variety of BHSM products. All drawing contest submissions must be postmarked by May 15th.
The song contest will be hosted on YouTube. Songs created for the contest should be four minutes or less and focus on raising awareness about preventing hearing loss and the steps children should take to protect their hearing. The first-place winner will receive $250 cash and a framed certificate. Second- and third-place winners will receive framed certificates and $150 and $75 cash, respectively. The song contest runs until midnight April 23rd. Winning videos will be featured on the ASHA Web site beginning May 3rd.
Entry details about both contests are located at www.asha.org/bhsm.
About ASHA
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 140,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders.
