Children are more likely to wake up from sleep and get out of bed and leave their bedrooms when they hear their mother's voice than they would if they were exposed to the din of a smoke alarm siren, say researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus Children's Hospital, USA.

This study is an example of devices that work for adults, but don't necessarily have the same results with children.

In this study, the researchers looked at 24 children, aged 6-12. Every single child, except one, woke up to his/her mother's recorded voice. The recording uttered the child name, then told him/her to wake up, get out of bed and leave the room - compared to just 14 kids who responded to the tone of a traditional fire alarm. The child who did not respond to the recorded voice of the mother did not respond to the alarm tone either.

The average time the children responded to their mothers' voice was 20 seconds, compared to 180 seconds to the alarm tone. Both sounds, the mothers' recorded voice and the alarm tone, measured 100 decibels (much louder than a normal smoke alarm sound).

The researchers are not sure whether the recorded voice was more effective because the children responded to their own names or their mothers' voice.

Comparison of a Personalized Parent Voice Smoke Alarm With a Conventional Residential Tone Smoke Alarm for Awakening Children
Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH, Mark Splaingard, MD, John R. Hayes, PhDa and Huiyun Xiang, MD, PhD, MPH
PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 4 October 2006, pp. 1623-1632
(doi:10.1542/peds.2006-0125)
Click here to view abstract