Researchers: Mom’s Voice Wakes Children Better than a Smoke Alarm

Since time began, children around the world have responded to one sound more instantaneously than any other sound in nature—and that sound is their mother’s voice. Any child knows that when mother speaks, you need to listen.

Now scientists have proven that a mother’s voice can get a child’s attention more successfully than any other sound. A small study performed by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Columbus Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, showed that children in a deep sleep awoke to recordings of their mothers’ voices, even if they slept through the beeping sound made by a smoke alarm.

Researchers studied 24 children, ages 6 to 12, and found that 23 of them were awakened from a deep sleep by the recorded voice of their mother calling their name and saying, "Wake up! Get out of bed! Leave the room!" Only 14 of the children were awakened by the traditional tone alarm like the one used in a smoke detector. One child didn’t wake up for either sound.

The study underscores the results of previous research indicating that what works for adults doesn’t always work for children, said Dr. Gary Smith, one of the co-authors of the study, the results of which were released in Pediatrics magazine. "Clearly, the strategy that has been tried and true and used for years…fails miserably for children," said Smith.

The children who were awakened by their mother’s voice woke up after an average time of 20 seconds, compared with an average time of 3 minutes for the children who were awakened by the beeping tone. Both alarms were sounded from a large speaker and measured 100 decibels, which is about four times louder than levels used in standard home alarms, Smith said.

Funding for the study was provided by a grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Medical Services, and the Ohio Emergency Medical Services Board. One safety expert praised the results, saying that the study is just the beginning. "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 next step, according to Smith, is to figure out why children responded to the voice alarm differently—whether they were merely responding to their names, their mother’s voices, or the frequency at which the sound was delivered, which was a lower frequency than that of the beeping alarm.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, there were 3,300 fatal fires in 2005, with 3,380 people being killed (not including firefighters). Of the victims, 14% were younger than age 10. In 42% of residential fatal fires, smoke alarms were not present in the house, and in 21%, the alarms were there but were not functioning.

Drengenberg said that these statistics show that no children have died because they didn’t wake up when they heard a smoke alarm going off. "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.