Kidz Gear Headphones: First Person Review

Kidz Gear Headphones are designed to limit the loudness of audio to help protect children’s hearing. Because loud noise can permanently damage hearing, the company designed a product that helps with volume control. Previously, I have tested headphones for adults, and I watched my daughter beg to wear my adult headphones. Now, as a concerned parent, I was excited to test the product’s effectiveness. Last year, I volunteered at an inclusive preschool and I taught several children with hearing loss. I began to understand how life changing hearing loss would be for a child and for a parent, which is why I appreciated the cause that the company had. I wrote the following review to examine the effectiveness of the product.

Review of the Headphones
As a product reviewer, I received a pink pair of headphones, a carry bag, and a stereo headphone splitter cable. Typically the product doesn’t automatically come with the accessories. I would recommend the carry bag for kids. My daughter always has a tendency to misplace and break items if there isn’t a designated place for everything. The bag was very soft and closed with a simple drawstring. While reviewing the accessories, I was most impressed.

While testing the product, I personally tried the Kidz Gear headphones to see how effective the volume control would be. When the headphones arrived, they were too small to fit on my head, but after I adjusted them, they fit fine on my adult head. I liked that the headphones were small enough to fit well on my 3 year old daughter’s head. Because I was a concerned parent, I wanted to know that my daughter’s hearing would be safe when she used the headphones. My daughter was very independent and headstrong. I needed to know that the product would work even when my daughter didn’t want to listen to my advice about lowering the volume.

When I tested the product, I started playing the music with a medium loudness with my adult headphones that I already had without the volume control. I kept the volume the same and used the kids’ headphones with the volume control. I could hear an audible difference. The volume was noticeably lower. I loved that my daughter could listen to audio with headphones without hurting her ears.

To conduct a more thorough review, I turned the volume as loud as it could go, first without the volume limit control – bad mistake! My ears ached for two days. I realized that the volume limit control is critical to use with the headphones. When I tested the kids’ headphones with the volume control, the volume was lower. The noise at full volume with the volume limit control was too loud for my comfort, but my ears were suffering from the side effects of blaring the noise without the volume limit control.

I continued to give my daughter directions to keep the noise at a reasonable volume. My daughter needed to learn proper use of headphones, which required teaching and modeling. I liked that the volume limit control helped reduce the volume even when my daughter didn’t listen to my advice. I felt that the product was a great starter pair of headphones. The product helped my daughter learn how to keep the volume at the right level while protecting her hearing during the learning process.

To test the stereo headphone splitter cable, I used a pair of adult headphones that I already had. I plugged the Kidz Gear headphones into one end of the stereo headphone splitter cable and my old adult pair of headphones into the other end of the stereo headphone splitter cable. Audio worked well on both pairs of headphones. I could tell that the volume was controlled well on both pair of headphones when I used the stereo headphone splitter cable and the volume control device. I liked that the noise was lower but didn’t seem muffled, as the audio quality remained decent. When the noise was controlled, the audio quality was good and had no scratchiness. When I took off the volume control device, which attached to the headphones, volume was noticeably louder.

As a parent, I used the volume control function to supplement my parenting strategies of modeling good noise level and an appropriate usage of headphones. Because I believed in good parenting, I didn’t expect the headphones to teach my daughter to keep the volume at a reasonable level. I had high expectations for my daughter, and I expected her to learn how to use headphones without a volume limit control device over time. My daughter needed to learn to use headphones appropriately, which is why I gave my daughter clear directions on how to use the item when I gave it to her. I wanted my daughter to learn that she could hear audio with the volume at a medium level and didn’t need to blare the audio at full volume to hear it well.

When I felt that my daughter had the noise loud, I checked in on her by plugging my headphones into the stereo headphone splitter cable. As a concerned parent, I liked that I was able to check in on my daughter to help her learn what a reasonable volume was. I felt that the design of the product was good for my headstrong daughter who didn’t always listen to my parenting advice about reducing the volume. In the future, I will continue using the stereo headphone splitter cable as a monitoring device to see that my daughter learns to use headphones appropriately because learning to use headphones is a learning process for a 3 1/2 year old girl, and I plan to continue letting my daughter use the headphones with her electronic devices.

To learn more about the company, visit Kidz Gear on Facebook. As a thank you to my readers, visit Theresa’s Reviews on Facebook where I’ll be announcing a giveaway for a pair of headphones, a carrying case, and a stereo headphone splitter cable in February 2014.

Disclosure
I received free products to help inform my writing.