![]() ![]() Khalfa, S., Bruneau, N., Rogé, B., Georgieff, N., Veuillet, E., Adrien, J.It’s important to validate your child’s sensitivity to noise while reassuring them that they are safe. Just know that the noises may sound louder to your child than they do to you. Remember, if you have questions about your child’s hyperacusis ask your audiologist for more information. Similarly, allowing your child to ring bells, start the dishwasher or honk the car horn may help ease his or her aversion through gradual exposure at his or her own will. In example, if the vacuum is an unpleasant noise maker, allow your child to turn the vacuum on and off. Using multiple opportunities to familiarize your child to the sound will help reduce the shock of a long exposure to a sound.Īdjusting to certain sounds may be aided by allowing your child to feel in control of the sound. A favorite toy, an iPad, puzzle or special bottle of bubbles may redirect your child’s attention from the distressing noise to the novelty of his or her new activity.īefore exposure to a potentially uncomfortable noise, allow your child to listen to the noise from afar. When trigger noises are unavoidable, a distraction may help your child manage the invasive sound. This could be a library, art class, a church group or going for a walk. Write down the places that are naturally quiet and comfortable for your child. ![]() Noise breaks may also be helpful (for example, going to the noisy grocery store followed by a quiet activity). However, it is acknowledged that noise cancelling headphones may provide relief if a child becomes exceptionally distressed and overstimulated. Also, talking to an audiologist can help you identify the type of sound sensitivities your child may have.Īudiologists and speech-language pathologists discourage the overuse of earplugs and headphones to avoid noise sensitivities. When your child indicates distress at the onset of a sound, make note of the cause. Examples may include the radio or school bell, a vacuum or the dishwasher. Perhaps the most important step is to identify which sounds are uncomfortable for your child. However, as a caregiver, there are easy strategies recommended by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to help your child with hyperacusis that you can use. So, it may be that children on the autism spectrum actually perceive noise to be louder than their peers. This suggested that children with autism may have a reduced range of comfortable volume, meaning that sounds start being uncomfortable at a lower volume than for other children. For reference, a normal conversation is about 50 decibels and a “library voice” whisper is around 30 decibels. The children with autism rated sounds that were above 40 decibels (a unit of intensity) as being significantly louder than the children in the other group. The ratings of each group were than analyzed by the scientists to reveal the following results: Trying to understand the connection between autism and hyperacusis, a group of scientists in France proposed that children on the autism spectrum may be more sensitive to the loudness of sound – they thought that children with autism may perceive sounds as louder than other children do.Įach child listened to a series of sounds at different intensities which they rated on a scale from “low” to “too loud”. When a sound is distressing to a child, he or she may show discomfort by covering their ears, trying to turn off the source of the sound or leaving the noisy environment. This means that certain noises, such as classroom bells, the radio or the TV, may be uncomfortable for your child to hear. Hyperacusis (say it with me: HY-per-uh-CUE-sis), is an increased sensitivity to sound that is commonly found among people with autism. What’s happening, and what you can do to help ![]()
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