Personalized Parent Voice Smoke Alarms:
Better for Awakening Children in Case of Fire

A 2006 study that compared children’s responses to a conventional tone smoke alarm to a smoke alarm which contains a personalized recording of a parent’s voice demonstrated that children were more likely to awaken, and respond appropriately, when hearing their parent’s voice.

Study Results

• 96% of children awakened to the parent recorded voice alarm as compared to 58% of children awakening to a standard tone alarm.
• 83% of children awakened by the parent’s voice alarm successfully performed the escape procedure within five minutes as compared to 38% of children awakened by the standard tone alarm.
• The median time of escape for the voice alarm group was 20 seconds as compared to a median escape time of 5 minutes for the tone alarm group.

To see the complete online version of this study go to: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/118/4/1623