ASD child with noise sensitivity struggling in nursery

[Ickystickystickystickybubblegum]

DD is 3, ASD referral has been made because of speech delay.

She attends nursery full time, mostly fine albeit nonverbal there. Her biggest trigger is children crying/loud screams.

She has ear defenders and they will remove her from the room when they can into a quiet sensory room if its too much. She is due to move into preschool room, larger ratio, more SEN children there who are very noisy.

What can be done on a practical level to help her with this noise aversion? We organised some speech therapy at nursery to help her try and verbalise her needs but were not really seeing results. Am also looking at occupational therapy.

I am feeling a bit helpless that she is in an environment that is so triggering for her. My worry is I could move her to a childminder who may also have a bunch of screamers and the CM would have less resource to remove her from the situation.

So sorry OP that sounds stressful.
Have you met with the nursery to see what they will implement when she moves room.Has she ever used PECS (pictures) to communicate her needs and vice versa with the staff?

I would say nursery will have more flexibility and staff numbers are to manage your DC over a CM as you can't predict what other children will be there

Hiya OP. My daughter isn’t autistic as far as I know but probably had a few traits … including being sensitive to noise at daycare.I’m curious to know how you are getting on:what the daycare can do to help your little one manage.?
I dropped her my daughter at morning tea time the other day and a teacher was trying to get the kids to sing before the food was served. Which when done well can be such a nice way to calm them before eating. She is so lovely But She has such a screechy voice and sang loudly over top of the noise. My daughter’s head just went down and she looked at me sadly and didn’t want me to leave.

@Ickystickystickystickybubblegum hope you don't mind me checking in to see if you were able to find any ways to make nursery less triggering for your DD? I'm currently in the exact same boat with my DD who is 3.5......really don't want to take her out of nursery and move her because of the upheaval but also feel very guilty making her go somewhere noisy every day when she finds it so upsetting