Noise cancelling ear defenders plus high school.

[imamumgetoutofmyear]

My son has ASD and ADHD.
He is my only child.
He will be starting secondary school this September, he will be 12.
I am already terrified about him starting—that he would be fed to the wolves because of his neurodiversity. I know how much I struggled in school, and I also know how cruel children can be, especially teens.
So I have been thinking about getting him Calmer ear plugs instead of him wearing these ear defenders . But I'm scared that him wearing his current ones will advertise his ND and entice bullying.

For what Calmer costs and how small they are, which will be prone to getting lost, I'm unsure what to do.

What is your (your teens) experience with Calmer ear plugs and/or ear defender headphones in high school, please?

Not sure how old you are, but...this is a very, very different world from when we grew up (I'm from the 70s/80s school years). People, even children, are far more tolerant now and ND kids have far more opportunity to be out-and-proud than we ever could have.

Calmers are OK, but nothing like real earplugs or ear defenders. Could he use earbuds with active noise cancelling? They might be a better solution, I use my Sennheisers all the time.

I'm a millennial, 1985. 90/00 school.

ND people don't want tolerance. They want acceptance.

Oh, I know that - I'm autistic. Acceptance is the gold standard, and is to be expected (or even enforced) with adults who can be reasoned with.

I'm reasonably sure that tolerance is the best we can expect from kids who haven't yet been taught any better.

That may well be coloured by the fact that there was neither tolerance nor acceptance when I was growing up (in fact it was more common to see outright hostility at any kind of displayed difference at all), so all I can see are the improvements from then to now. Ultimately, children are largely horrible to each other even without any observable differences, so "tolerance" looks like a massive step forward from my perspective.

Yeah 😔 I know you're right. It will be decades until we get acceptance and can live out and proud with who we are. So we have to live with tolerance 😔 I never want him to mask who he is, but I know how cruel teens can be. I also know the ear defenders will be. Big give away with him being ND. Then I feel ashamed of myself that I'm even thinking about ways of him trying to hide who he is. 😔 I'm ND myself and I know what I went though at school it was terrible. So him starting secondary school this year really does terrify me 😭

Im ND and ive just found out about loop ear plugs. Im going to get the loop switch ones (3-in-1) on payday.
Might be worth a look .......

I am in secondary/high school now I started in September 2024 and I'm in year 7 and I have autism too and I have purple vanderfeilds ear defenders and I have always been soo anxious to wear them because I didn't want anyone to make fun of me or laugh or say anything about me wearing them or getting bullied but today I weared them and honestly I am soooo surprised that how no one made fun of me or said anything to me about them and other kids wear them and now I am soo brave and happy to wear them older kids are more mature and he should wear what ever suits you guys he won't get made fun of trust me they may seem strange at first to the students/ children and but also teens and but they will get used to him wearing them soo many people I know wear them they just don't take any notice if anything a quick look and a look away and nothing to be said so I hope that this helped now I feel more confident and comfortable wearing them 💕🩷😁😊