Noise therapy

[frizzcat]

im sure I saw that someone on here did some noise therapy and it helped - I want ds to get over his fear of balloons hand dryers and part poppers. This would be the same ds that loves huge firework displays!!

Yes, Auditory Integration Training cures hypersensitive hearing, and is really good.

It's also a tad expensive :) But about a dozen regular posters on here have done it and would all recommend it.

I've done it on my 2 oldest - and will do it on my 3rd as soon as I get a 'round to-it' :)

I thought it was you indigo - who did you go through to get it? And how expensive was it?

we did it ourselves. just basic de-sensitisation stuff though, not AIT. dd2 was really only affected by unexpected or loud noises, though. she didn't have any other indicators.

How did you do it madwoman, are there websites you can recommend that give you free advice? DS is a nightmare when we turn the Hoover on, I feel so guilty as it is such an ordeal for him but we've got cats and he's fairly messy himself too so we need to Hoover or the carpets would be a state.

There's a list of all the places I've found that do it on the bottom of this page.

I used the Sound Learning Centre, and highly recommend them - but they're not the cheapest.

I believe this place is the cheapest. I believe they charge around £300.

Thanks a lot

Hi,
We are doing a similar programme with dd2, we are a month in to the therapy and have seen some changes, i don't think it will cure her sensitivity to sound but hopfully will improve it, so far we have seen changes in other areas, she will sit down on the carpet for a longer period (at school) and is a lot more responsive when asked to do things.

We are getting the therapy on the NHS from OT so we are very lucky not to have to pay the huge prices plus we get seen by the OT each week to check progress and to have a therapy session (with most programmes you just get given the CD's and are left to got on with it).

If you need any more info please ask, i have all the paper work for dd2's therapy here (explaining how it works) and i had a training session with the OT yesterday.

If your child has hypersensitive hearing than it actually hurts when they hear certain noises - like most people find with fingernails down a blackboard.

When you cure their hypersensitive hearing they find everything less stressful - but especially noisy classrooms.

Before we did it DS used to walk out of class about 5 times a day. Now he hardly ever walks out. I had no idea that he found the class noisy. I don't think he knew that was the problem either. He just got more and more stressed till he burst and left the room.

Indigo, if it hurts the child then would you be curing the pain they feel with loud noises or giving them coping strategies to deal with the pain in a better way?

Curing the problem. Not giving them coping strategies.

Before and after audiograms show both DS and DD previously had hypersensitive hearing (a value below 0) in the normal speech frequencies, and now they don't.

AIT doesn't hurt the child. They just listen to music with certain frequencies filtered out (or something like that. I don't remember exactly.)

Cheers indigo - I'm looking into this one and I'll hopefully make contact with them this week
Marne - grateful for anything you have

this is the programme we are doing with dd2.

I have slightly different veiws on it than Indigo, i have met several people/children who have done similar programmes and the resaults are different for each one. Some parents find they will see huge changes straight away, others find they see a gradual change and others see no change at all (it doesn't work for every one), some of the people who see a huge change find thet a year or so after the therapy the sensory problems with sound return, it is possible to re-do the therapy.

I will try and explain how it works, if you take a look at this picture of the ear, you can see 2 small bones called the 'Anvil' and the 'sturup', these bones vibrate/move when sounds enter the ear, in children that have had a lot or ear infections or children with ASD and sensory issues around sound this bone seizes up making some sounds very painful, by listening to the Theraputic listening CD's the sounds they listen too are slowlly minipulating the Anvil and sturup, so gradualy this loosens them returning them to how they should be.

The hearing effects a lot of other sensory issues such as balance, co-ordination and the speed that the brain processes information so you may see a lot of changes in these areas as well as the noise sensitivity, we have seens small changes in all areas, dd2 can not concentrate for longer, sit for longer and will respond to questions (such as 'get your shoes') a lot faster. We have seen more changes in these areas than we have the noise sensitivity, she's still holding her ears a lot but we remain hopfull that we will see improvements over the coming months.

Marne - how much does it cost, how long and often during the day is done and for how many weeks/ months? Can it be done at home or in clinic? Thx

BlueShark- we are getting it for free on the NHS through dd2's OT, the OT has been fully trainde and also does the therapy private (apparently its around £300), we have been very lucky that out OT has offered us this on the NHS, in return all sessions have been videoed to use for training other OT's. Most of the therapy is done at home, dd2 has to listen to the cd for 30 minutes twice a day, we go to the clinic every other week (to begin with it was every week), the OT does some sensory work with dd whilst she's listening to the cd (lots of heavy activity with gym ball and the swing) and the CD gets changed every 2 weeks. We have our next visit to clinic on thursday this week and will be getting our 3rd CD.

Yesterday my dd2 managed to watch assebelly from the Library without holding her ears for the first time . I would be happy to see her noise sensitivity half from what it has been, i'm not sure if it will be cured but any improvement has to be worth it.

Thx Marne. Have just pm'd you