Nathan's Tunes

My little brother Nathan LOVES all things music and movies. He is always listening to or watching something, and if he isn't he is acting something out! It is one of the ways that has helped him to cope with a lot of the challenges that he has faced so far in this life. Nathan has Down Syndrome and one of the characteristics of that is having low set ears which often leads to hearing problems. Nathan was born mostly deaf, but because of a surgery that he had when he was young that put tubes in his ears he can hear significantly better now, especially when he is wearing his hearing aids. But he often forgoes wearing his hearing aids so that he can wear headphones to listen to his music. This would be fine but it also means that he has to listen to the music so loud in order to hear it that he cannot hear anything else going on in the world around him. I learned about one piece of technology this week that I think will help Nathan (and my parents) to enjoy his intake of media so much more. They are called bone conduction headphones and instead of putting the earbuds in or on your ears the piece rests on your ear or cheek bone and plays the music through vibrations. Pretty cool right??? This will make it so much easier for Nathan to wear his hearing aids as well as do the thing that he loves the most, listen to music! It is so cool how technology is changing and adapting to make life easier and better for people! These headphones could really make Nathan's media consumption so much healthier.