Hyperacusis

[jerikaka]

My ds has just been provisionally diagnosed with hyperacusis which is being linked to a communication disorder (he is 2.2). Now we are awaiting an appointment with the paedeatrician and a clincal pschologist, but I just wanted to know if anyone has had experience of this. Any comments appreciated, thanks!

Ds1 (5) and ds2 (2.9yrs) are both very sensitive to loud noise. Ds1 was so affected that he would 'tune out' from most sounds and so appeared to be deaf as a toddler. He can hear even the quietest of sounds and even some sounds that humans aren't supposed to be able to hear. Ds2 used to wear a hat all the time to block out noise but now tends to just clamp his hands over his ears. Ds1 has a diagnosis of high-functioning autism. Ds2 has the same provisional diagnosis and is due to be re-assessed next year.

Have they treated the sensitivity to noise at all? Do all autistic children have this senstivity? I don't really understand either condition very well, so please excuse my ignorance!

I'm not 100% certain but I think it's something that varies from child to child. If you Google for "sensory integration disorder" then you should be able to find out more about the sensitivity to noise. There's something called Auditory Integration Training that involves listening to certain sounds/noises to help reintegrate hearing but it doesn't work for all children. My boys haven't tried it so I don't know a lot about it but again you could try using google to see what you can find. I suppose a lot will depend on what is actually causing the sensitivity to noise in the first place.

Thats what they are not sure about. The peadeatrician said that she needed ds to see the pyschologist as it was too complex for her! I'm just glad we are getting somewhere with the diagnosis as I've spent months being told to 'distract him' or the best one was 'try giving him something to eat'. Though I suppose it's not until you see his reaction that you see how extreme it is. He was screaming hysterically at the story makers the other day when the lady was sneezing and blowing her nose. It was really odd. The only way we could think of calming him down was to make raspberry noises whilst we were pretending to blow our noses to try and make it a funny thing.

Coppertop, how did your ds react to the noise of your second ds when he was born? My second is due in seven weeks, and I am quite concerned as to how he is going to react to the noises of crying etc.

Strangely ds1 didn't seem to be all that affected by ds2 crying. He would clamp his hands over his ears if it got too bad but otherwise just seemed to blank the worst of it out. We made sure he had a quiet area he could retreat to if it got too much. When he was smaller he had a cupboard he liked to sit in. As he got bigger he would use a large cardboard box or even just the hallway.

I know what you mean about the reactions to fairly ordinary programmes. The things that I thought would affect ds1 didn't whereas fairly ordinary things would drive him to distraction. It was impossible to predict.