Waves of sound go into my ears.
Inside my ears, sounds hit an eardrum and tiny bones.
Nerves take a message to my brain about the sound.
My brain tells me what I am hearing
There are three parts to the human ear: the outer, the middle, and the inner.
The outer ear
The outer ear is the part we can see because it is outside the body.
Sound waves enter the ear and the brain tells us what we are hearing. ©iStock Images
The outer ear is the entry point for sounds. Sounds travel in waves through the air and into our ears. Inside the ears, the sound waves move along short tunnels which are about 25 millimetres long. There is wax in the tunnels which helps keep the ear clean. The sound waves reach a thin layer of skin called the eardrum and it vibrates.
The middle ear
Behind the eardrum is the middle ear. Here there are three tiny bones, the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup. These bones vibrate too when the eardrum is hit. This makes liquid and hairs in the next part of the ear, the inner ear, move.
The inner ear
The liquid and hairs are in a curled tube called the cochlea (say cok - lee - uh). Messages about the vibrations move along nerves to the brain. The brain tells you what the sound is.
Liquid and nerves in a liquid inside your ears helps you to keep your balance ©iStock
As well as hearing, the ears help us keep our balance. The liquid in the inner ear swirls about when you move. Nerves in the inner ear tell your brain which way you are moving, and this helps you to keep your balance.
Deafness
A doctor can look inside your ear with an instrument called an otoscope ©iStock
Deaf or hearing impaired people can't hear well, or, in some cases, at all. Deafness or hearing loss can happen if a person is born with parts of the ear that don't work properly. Hearing loss can also happen as a result of an accident, because of an illness, or because of an infection in the ear. Constant listening to very loud music or the loud sounds of machinery can also cause hearing loss.
A hearing aid can help people with hearing loss to hear. Some are placed just inside the outer ear, but some people have a cochlear implant, or ‘bionic ear’, which requires surgery to implant it inside the body near the ear.
Taking care of your ears
All you need to do to take care of your ears is to carefully wash them. This will remove any ear wax that has dried and moved to the opening of the ear.
It is dangerous to put anything into your ear, as this can irritate the ear and cause infections or damage it.
It’s a good idea to get information from more than one source!
Read more about ears:
http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/ears.html
https://www.coolkidfacts.com/ear-facts/
Read about types of hearing impairment
https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/hearing-impairment.html