sound sensitive

Replies

By Tricia

Re: sound sensitive
Sun 2 Mar 2008 11:22

Hello Loopy

My son has some sound sensitivities. He is now old enough where we have got him to let us know if he can't stand certain noises. We travel mostly by car and he wears his ear plugs while watching his dvd's and when out and about many a time has his i pod plugged into his ears too. When he is in the car I can only have the radio on if he has the ear plugs in unless it is music which he likes. His communciation is through things which he has an interest in and this is something which a lot of people have found him being what they say ignorant which makes me furious as they know he is autistic and that is one of the main traits in autism communiation of a conversation is on an interest which the child or person with autism has!

I have seen parents where they do have children who are very sound sensitive and they have found putting on the safety ear muffs or in some cases just ear muffs to cut out the sounds which their child are unable to cope with.

But I do understand your frustration as I have had situations where my son growls when he is unable to cope. When people see an almost six foot looking fully grown man (he is only 16 but looks a lot older) I do get some very funny looks over the years. Now I have learnt to cut them out and just tunnel vision myself on looking out for my son when he is like that.

I often say parents of autistic children seem to be more autistic than the child themselves BUT this is because we have to go into their world to communicate with them and understand where they are coming from. (I hope who ever reads this undersands where I am coming from when I say that)

take care

tricia

By kerry

Re: sound sensitive
Sun 2 Mar 2008 18:37

Hi Lisa and tricia,
My boys have fragile x syndrome but also autism. id say georgie is about 50/50. he can be very sound sensitive.
they both can i guess but diff sounds. for example, takig them to a supermarket is hell for georgie, you have tills ringing, quarry tiles echoing on the floor, people yapping, all the diff visual stimuli. colours, even flourescent lights upset them.
all those sounds which we can drown out,they cant. sometimes called white noise, like the hum of a fridge.
imagine lisa, all the noises you get in the street: apart from noisy cars. next time youre out really 'listen' to the noises and multiply it by 100. this is what its like i guess for our kiddies.
my bloke took the boys to asda yesterday to buy mothers day stuff- george went missing twice (each time for 3 or 4 minutes- or a lifetime!) and siddie once. it was cos they cant cope with it all.
of course bloke was white, sweaty and very strained looking by the time he got home. I guess im more used to it!
tried to talk to georgie about stranger danger- he said "Piss off you ugly worm, youre not my friend" and ran to his bedroom
oh well at least hes talking eh!
Kerry

By keighleymum

Re: sound sensitive
Sun 2 Mar 2008 19:43

My daughter has downs syndrome and noise sensitivity is a real issue for her. We usually spend school discos in the corridor because although she loves dancing she cant stand the noise.

By loopy

Re: sound sensitive
Sun 2 Mar 2008 19:55

charlotte strung two words togeather today. pity it was "oh shit" though!! made us laugh though.As you rightly say kerry, at least they are talking!!

By kerry

Re: sound sensitive
Mon 3 Mar 2008 08:22

haha kelighleys mum,
u reminde me of when we do parties for georgies bday etc, he loves the idea of a party but the actual reality is a bit different.
last one there we were all gathered round the bottom of the stairs (which is about 3ft square) singing happy birthday while he happliy sat at the top pf the stairs refusing to come down cos of the noise.
bit of a bugger trying to blow his candles out from up there though.
another time he just left...
we were having a do at local swimming pool and it was in one of the side rooms. came time for the cake and singing and he legged it.
bloke and i were going "Elvis george has left the building".

By moonstar

Re: sound sensitive
Wed 19 Mar 2008 22:19

Hi Loopy

Just seen your post about sound sensitivity in autism. My son is ASD. He quite often puts headphones on. One of my best investments was a pair of ear defenders (like you would use when using a road drill!)

My son also makes noise continuously and when I have spoken to Educational Psychologist, etc, about this, they have told me that it is his way of filtering out unpleasant noise. It can be a bit annoying but its like living under a flight-path - you learn not to hear it.

I've also held birthday parties for an absent birthday boy! have now given up and my son and most of his friends now have trips to the cinema,and they are not even referred to as birthday parties as that starts him off again, and because we all have kids with some form of autism, we are quite used to not seeing the film right through when someone takes a notion to leave!

Until a month ago, I used to have to go to the (few) birthdays he was invited to with him. He got invited to a cinema trip recently and he wanted to go without me - the only condition was that I had to hang around in the vicinity of the cinema the whole time he was there - major breakthrough!