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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

anyone's child sound/noise hypersensitive ?

22 replies

charlie95 · 17/09/2004 21:35

ds,developmental delay from 3 major operations on brain and heart when tiny. progressing all the time and just started school, obs. class. last year and half been very sensitive to noises/sounds particularly those of babies, young children. had no help from anyone locally. looked into myself on 'net. found sound therapy prog. just wondered if anyone else has experienced any such thing. he gets most upset at such noises, and even some noises at home eg hoover, food processor, drilling/some diy etc.

OP posts:

Original poster

charlie95 · 17/09/2004 21:41

look forward to any advice or stories.
tired now.
pg again. off to bed now.
will check back for msgs tom.
thanks.
ps can call me chaz for short if you like.

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Jimjams · 17/09/2004 23:36

My autistic son is. AIT can help some. We did it at home using hired equipment I can give more details if you like. It helped my friend's dd enormously, ds1 less so.

Can you teach things like getting him to put his hands over his ears. DS1 is starting to do this now - and I've noticed he's screaming less in response.

unicorn · 18/09/2004 00:37

This is probably not relevant.. but both my kids (5+ 2.8mths) have always been hypersensitive to noise...
to the extent that we have never been able to just "take a quick peek" when they were sleeping... as we'd wake them up!!! (by moving the door handle!)
BTW- they are not classed as anything yet (other than pain in the proverbial)... just think some kids/people are more acoustically tuned in than others.

Jimjams · 18/09/2004 07:55

hypersensitivity in brain injured children is a bit of a different kettle of fish though unicorn. ds1 actually sleeps very soundly - ds2 (not hypersensiitve wakes much more easily). When children are hypersensitive it means they actually cannot tolerate certain pitches. Thesounds don't have to be loud. Hypersensitivity to noise is common in autistics and sometimes they will talk of being able to hear toilets flushing 3 flats away, or being able to hear the electricity. Certain noises may be absolutely intolerable for them. For ds1 its our upright hoover. If it comes out of its cupboard when he's around he'll start screaming and drag me to it until I put it away (hoovers in shops- safely turned off he loves). Therapies like AIT can help.

Charlize - just occured to me last night- have you read the books about georgie stahl (spelling?) it's a good intro to AIT.

Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 20:05

AIT? cant think what it stands for but have come across it somewhere. what are the books like? could be interesting/useful. could you tell me where to find them? unless i look on amazon or something like that. oh and he always has put hands over ears by himself. either for noise or sometimes if he doesnt want to do something that we want him to! we find family childrens parties a nightmare when they come along. or if his young cousins attend a general family gathering/party. he cannot stand them - well the noise they make anyway. but as soon as he sees them he knows they're going to be noisy and hyperactive. cant win.

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Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 20:15

the annoying thing also ids that memebers of fmaily hwho dont see him him very ofterne ask me whats wrong, thoguth he was better, why is helike this, whts he oding.........AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! then on the other extreme elsewhere when hes upset eg school, i get everyone telling me, dont do it, or keep on coming cos he MUST get used to it, you were like that at his age....blah blah blah. I know what his problem is. it IS hypersensitivity to noise and yet noone offers to help. then his neurologist in january said, when i epxlained the problem, oh it sounds like separation anxiety leaving you. I DISAGREE . hes always 'left' me fine. IT IS noise. she just said lets refer him to a clincial child psychologist. when she turned up in july, all she could do was recommend to keep a diary for her to see nxt time, and when see did there was nothing really that she could do about it. finally last week another dr listned to me and agreed for another hearing check (which ive been waitng for since january) in case they can suggest something or investigate further. sorry for the essay!!

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mckenzie · 18/09/2004 20:16

charlie95, we have previously had probelms with Ds, now 3, but mainly regarding other children/babies cry. He would get so very upset, be inconsolable, even if we were in one aisle of Sainsbury and there was a baby crying in another aisle on the other side of the store.
Also, if a baby was doing 'scribble talk', Ds would get upset. At the same time he was going thgrough this stage he also decided that he didn't want to go to Tumble Tots, the Art and Music class that before he had enjoyed tremendously, church, a restaurant, anywhere that was a little busy.

We were lucky enough to have one of these incidences witnessed by the health visitor and would then referred to a hearing specialist (everything pronounce normal) and the Child Guidance (who were very supportive and helpful). Luckily, Ds did grown out of it and we no longer have any problems.

I know this isn't quite the same situation as your son's but thought my son's story might help a little.

Dh hsa just reminded me that about the same time that this was gong on, DS did become most upset whenever the hoover was on whereas before and since he's not bothered at all.

If you would like to talk more charlie95 to see if therte are more similarities to our situations then perhaps contact me direct.
You have my utmost sympathy and understanding. It's a horrible situation to have to deal with.

mckenzie · 18/09/2004 20:17

charlie95, sorry, my message crossed with your latest one.

Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 20:36

that sounds like ds.

are we allowed to give out email addresses on this ? or keep chatting on here. that would be great just to see what happeend with yours.

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coppertop · 18/09/2004 21:17

AIT = Audio Integration Therapy.

My ds1 is 4yrs old and has hypersensitive hearing. The noise from fluorescent lights drives him crazy. His hearing is so sensitive that he can hear sounds from outside of the normal human range, eg dog whistles and those ultra-sonic cat-scaring devices. He is autistic.

Ds2 is 19 months old and also has hypersensitive hearing. On a bad day you literally can't speak to him in anything louder than a whisper as he will scream the place down. It's possible/likely that he is on the autistic spectrum too, although we are still waiting for an assessment.

Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 21:19

ds is very slightly better than he was but it is a problem i would like to get to the bottom of.

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Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 21:22

we're curently working on a sound therapy prog from USA called The Listening Program. bought it off someone in uk who specialises in it. supposed to work, but its taking a long time to get thru. dont know if we'll see more improvment after it is completed.

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Jimjams · 18/09/2004 21:36

The listening program is AIT! It can work well- the books (biographies of her daughter) are by A Stehli and are The SOund of a Miracle and Dancing in the Rain (actually not sure what Dancing in the Rain is about- but the SOund of a Miracle is about her dd).

Original poster

charlie95 · 18/09/2004 21:37

oops!! silly me! of course it is. pg affecting MY brain perhaps!!

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Jimjams · 18/09/2004 21:39

Another thing that helps ds1 is humming. it's a bit stimmy so we try to limit it, but I've noticed he will use it to block sounds sometimes. (kind of backgroundy noises- doesn't work for the loud ones- then he just covers his ears and screams

Jimjams · 18/09/2004 21:41

know the feeling charlie! Sound of a Miracle is definitely worth a read- they had great results with AIT, and once verbal Georgie was able to explain what the sounds had been like for her- gives a good understanding as to why certain sounds can be so stressful.

if you read the other book let me know what it is like

mckenzie · 19/09/2004 07:47

charlie95, you can use 'contact another talker' and then you'll be able to e mail me directly if you like.

LJsmum · 22/09/2004 00:42

Jimjams & coppertop, do either of you know whether it is possible for some 'normal' children to display autistic traits? The only reason I ask is that my ds has always been very sensitive to certain noises too (not as bad now - mainly when he was younger), but he would get really quite disturbed by them. There have been a couple of instances where he has become so disturbed by a noise that I've had to leave the situation. He would also hold his hands firmly over his ears whenever this happened. I'm finding that he's gotten better with age (he's 4 now), I suppose things may not be quite as frightening as they were when he was little. Another thing I've noticed is that if he is in a situation that disturbs him, he can become really agitated... fortunately this happens quite rarely.

I don't know how normal any of this is, but I once did the on-line CHAT test and the results showed that there was no risk of autism. He seems normal in every other way, socially and developmentally, but I have just been a little concerned about these couple of traits and was wondering whether it's possible to show some autistic tendencies without actually being autistic, IYKWIM. Hope this makes sense! Thanks.

Jimjams · 22/09/2004 09:26

Yep completely normal! Has been possibly linked to developing tinitus though and so could be worth considering AIT sometime in the future if it remains a problem.

LJsmum · 22/09/2004 11:50

Thanks Jimjams. One thing that makes ds become very agitated is lying down on a bed in a doctor's surgery - he will let a doctor examine him with no problems, but if they try to get him to lie down, he will throw a wobbly. This happened in a paediatrician's office a few weeks ago and in the end, ds agreed to lie on the floor while the dr examined him but there was no way he would lie on the bed. Afterwards the doctor asked me whether ds always gets so agitated, and I suspect he was thinking it was a bit of an autistic trait. Personally I think it comes from the fact that ds had a bad experience when he was very young, a doctor held him down on a bed to examine him when he was sick, and the whole thing probably frightened him. He certainly cried his heart out during the whole experience & it was a while before he trusted doctors again. Anyway I do wonder about his reactions occasionally but I guess it doesn't mean that something is necessarily wrong with him - most of the time he seems quite ok, a typical overactive boy in fact

Thanks again jj, it helps to know these things. I find doctors pretty useless when it comes to giving out useful information..

Pagan · 22/09/2004 12:23

If it is any consolation there is another thread somewhere about noise sensitivity but it doesn't seem to be confined to children who have had health problems. I think it is just something all kids go through. My DD (1) is terrified of the hoover, lawnmower etc. At almost 36 I can't stand the noise of sirens or alarm warnings to the point that I have to cover my ears and want to scream

SofiaAmes · 22/09/2004 13:56

I am hypersensitive to white noise. I can't sleep if there is a fan or ac going anywhere nearby. I get very agitated and have nightmares. Of course as an adult I can pinpoint what is bothering me. It's possible that as a child I reacted, but my parents didn't really realize what was bothering me.
I think that if possible it might be worth trying to see if you can contact a neurologist who does research rather than someone who just operates...they might be more up on current research on the brain.

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