sudden change in sensory thresholds?

[JoMaman]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them. Ds1, 4, with autism, has until now had the opposite of noise sensitivity, i.e. often he would appear not to notice sounds, even really loud ones.

We did the listening programme 8 months ago and noticed a big jump in receptive language.

Suddenly this week we've noticed that background noises, that would barely register before, are making him anxious and tearful, crying and shaking etc and then he is ok when the noise stops.

Not sure if it is relevant but in the same week, he has made a huge step with another sensory problem - he was rejecting all food that requires chewing (eating only puree and dry crunchy stuff) and then suddenly he is accepting small chunks of fruit. We've been doing a food desensitisation programme to target this, so am over the moon with this breakthrough, but it seems one problem has been replaced by another?

Anyone had a similar experience with sensory thresholds suddenly changing? Am going to look at getting ear defenders for when we're out, but is there anything else we can do?

TIA

I don't know if this could apply to your ds1 too but my own ds used to pay so little attention to noise that I used to think he might be deaf. Even loud alarms and fireworks nearby didn't seem to affect him.

I later discovered that in fact he was hypersensitive to noise and used to block out all sounds around him, including the sound of voices. As he's got older he's become much better at managing to block out the loud noise and listen to the quieter noises, but there are still some sounds that are painful to him.

It could be that your ds has moved on from blocking sounds to letting them all in and the result is very scary for him.

My other ds did the listening programme a couple of years ago. It worked well at the time but lately I've noticed that he's finding noise a problem again. I don't know if it's possible for the effects to wear off but if it is, then that could be a possibility for your ds too?

I was told by OT that with sensory processing, the biggest clue is in procecssing and in children with sensory processing dificulties, they cannot process sensory information appropriately.

In order to process information adequately and achieve the same result everytime, you have to be able to regulate that information. People with SP, cannot regulate adequately. So can achieve a different response everytime they are presented with sensory info.

For example my ds has a big problem with eating, when he was about 3 years old, he ate sausage rolls and this was literally all he would eat for a short period of about 4 weeks. After this he would never touch a sausage roll again (he is now 8 years old) This didnt make any sense to me, if he had tried it and liked it previously, why wouldnt he eat it again!?

OT explained it to as above. So for those 4 weeks that he did eat a sausage roll, the info being sent was being regulated in a different way, to how it is now.

When someone without SP eats a sausage roll, the same info is sent every single time, so it tastes exactly the same everytime. Someone with SP, varies literally from month to month, day to day and it could be like asking them to eat a slug.

Hope that makes sense!!

Thanks for your responses ladies!

Coppertop - that could well apply to ds1. I've just remembered that he was hypersensitive to sounds as an infant, so maybe he has been sensitive the whole time and was blocking sounds out in order to cope.

Claw - your explanation makes a lot of sense, same info going in but a change in the processing gives a different result. Its just puzzling me that it has changed so dramatically so suddenly...

pipinjo - have been racking my brains for sources of additional anxiety that could have triggered it but am drawing a blank so far... it does seem to affect him more when he is tired and/or out of comfort zone though.

My big fear is that it could start to affect him at his nursery placement, which had been going well so far :(

I will ask our OT about re-doing the listening programme or trying another one, although I thought I read somewhere that you are only supposed to do it once a year maximum?

Any other suggestions gratefully received!

Jo, i agree with what Coppertop and Pippinjo has said, we are all saying the same thing, in different ways.

As Coppertop said your ds might be sensitive to loud noises, so is blocking everything out. With any kind of therapy you are helping the child to regulate their response, so you may have helped to regulate his response to loud noises, but he is now not filtering out background noises.

As Pipinjo says anxiety is a big problem. If you can imagine that the child experiences the sensory world differently to us and responses are not always the same, this must be quite confusing and anxiety provoking. Bit like my food example, one minute my ds tastes a sausage roll and it taste like a sausage roll, next it tastes nothing like a sausage roll. Its going to create great anxiety around food, never knowing what to expect.

I should imagine, they have difficult processing most if not all sensory info, to some degree or another and one difficult seems to roll into another. For example ds is also worried about food spilling on him too. It also affects his visual perception too. Vestibular too, well you name it, he has a difficult with it!

The worst times for my lad's sensory issues seem to coincide with massive growth spurts, almost like the growth spurts push everything even more out of sync that they are already for a few months.

Has anyone else found this?

Ds1 used to amaze us with his ability to block out noise and completely immerse himself in a book. He always used this as a way to retreat when things got too much for him and we knew he'd be ok wherever we went, as long as we always made sure he had a book with him.

Over the past few months something has changed for him though. He now cannot filter out even tiny noises and will react angrily if someone is even 'breathing too loudly' near him when he wants to read. He's finding this really stressful and upsetting and it sounds similar to what your ds is going through.

Interestingly, ds has also made some leaps recently - not so much sensory stuff though, more to do with being able to contain his emotions better at school during the day.

He's also started to stim and tick a lot again, which is something he hasn't done for quite a while and is a sure sign that he is stressed and overloaded.

I was thinking that all the extra effort required to manage his emotions and control his behaviour at school leaves him with no resources left over to deal with all the other things, such as sensory input. Not sure what we can do to help him with this though.

It does seem like every time he makes progress in one area, another area starts to suffer. It often makes me question whether we are doing the right thing trying to teach him to conform and try to fit in. It's all such a massive effort on his part and in reality it's all so he 'fits in' better and 'appears as normal' as possible and I find myself questioning whether that's really for his benefit or for everyone else's.

Sorry, not much help I know, because I don't really know what to do to help him with this. I just wanted to let you know that you/your ds is/are not alone with this.

Moosemama, that is exactly what ds does, immerse himself in a book.

Although recently, ds has stopped doing this and taken to 'lining things up', he also has a vocal tic of clearing his throat every few seconds and has started to engage in self injurious behaviour of scratching at his skin. All things, he does when overly anxious. He can normally contain it, by reading.

How are things for your ds at school?