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Listen!!! Auditory Issues... Why Does The Autistic Child Have Such Sensitive Hearing? Another common trait of the autistic is certainly that of their sensitive hearing. As with other issues related to sensory factors, this is another one of those issues where I believe perhaps several factors are at play. Zachary's hearing has improved greatly since on enzymes... it took a few months, but he is definitely less sensitive to sounds than he used to be. He is finally taking his "shopping earmuffs" off in stores and sounds, overall, don't seem to bother him as much... he can now better tolerate the humming of the lights or of the freezers in grocery stores. He is much better able to handle general "background noise" since he has been taking enzymes. I also do believe, however, that what so many parents perceive as a sensitivity to sound may not always actually be a sensitivity to sound but perhaps a sensitivity to "newly introduced" or "startling" sounds. There has been many a time when Zachary has placed his hands quickly on his ears. This happened especially when he heard a loud, unexpected noise, such as a broken muffler on a car or the turning on of a P.A. system in a large retail store. What I found to be a tremendous help with these "unexpected" noises was simply to label them. When a car went by that made a lot of sound, I simply said: "It's a broken muffler", or when the P.A. went on, I simply said: "It's an overhead announcement"... or something to that effect. In no time, the noises no longer bothered Zachary... he no longer had to put his hands on his ears when he heard these sounds... and when he did hear them, he would simply tell me: "it's a broken muffler", etc. So, again, labeling helped him cope tremendously. For these "unexpected sounds", again, if you think about them in terms of the inability to process partiality, that also makes a great deal of sense. One adapts to the sounds about him as he walks or goes about daily life. An "unexpected" sound, however, introduces a new element into the equation... a new "part" to the "whole" that must be dealt with... that must be integrated. Simply labeling sounds helps Zachary integrate them to the point that they are no longer troublesome. By labeling the sounds, once again, they take on an identity in and of themselves and are no longer seen as "a part" that needs to be processed. In my opinion, this explains why vacuums and hair dryers, for example, often seem to troublesome for autistic children. If you listen to the sound of these objects, they are not constants but rather change with motion in terms of the actual "aspirating sound" and the sound of the motor itself. The sound of a vacuum on carpet is different than the sound of a vacuum against the wall as one cleans the edges of a room, or the sound of a vacuum on tile or wood flooring. If you add in the rolling of the wheels on these surfaces, the sounds made by the removing and adding of various attachments, you indeed have many unexplained sounds from this one object alone. Much of the same factors are true for the hair dryer. Its sounds change with motion, speed selections (high, medium, low) and the surface off which the sounds themselves reflect. The act of covering one's ears, in Zachary, was also due to his "not wanting to hear something"... yet another way for him to "ignore what he did not want to cope with". The most specific example I can provide of this has to do with the phrase "get to bed". As I worked on the computer one night, before I knew it, it was approximately 9:30 at night. The children had quietly put in another video and knowing fully that they were well past their bed time, they were being rather quiet - truly "little angels" in order not to bring attention to the fact that they were still up. As I looked at the clock above my desk, I realized how late it was and said: "ok, get to bed". I got up and went the few feet to where the children were sitting. As Zachary saw me standing next to the couch and heard me repeat "ok, get to bed", he immediately put his hands over his ears and said: "no... no get to bed". :o) Of course, my heart melted as I laughed a little at his desperate attempts to stay up. I simply said: "You want to stay up? Then you have to ask and say: 'mom, can I stay up please'? ". Zachary repeated the question and I, of course, stated he could stay up a little longer. So there you had it... yet, more proof that putting one's hands over one's ears was not simply an issue with sound frequencies... it was an issue with sound "content" also. :o) I had noticed a variation of this in my nephew, Andrew, as well. At 11 years of age, Andrew was quite verbal. Yet, if he was confused as he spoke and felt he had not said something "just the right way", the exact way he wanted to say it, just prior to "starting over" in terms of making his point or telling his story, Andrew made a motion to cover his ears. Again, it was "as if" what he had heard, even coming from himself, had been "wrong" and as such was somehow "offensive" to him and so, to "block it out" or "do away with what had been said in the wrong way", Andrew simply covered his ears. When he was now ready to "start over" and re-express what he had been trying to say, his hands "came down" and no longer covered his ears. I was, therefore, convinced that "content" of what was heard also played a role in explaining why the autistic covered their ears! The key, in my opinion, lies again, in labeling as many of these differing sounds for the child - explaining that "this is vacuuming on a carpet", "this is vacuuming on a wooden floor", "this is the sound of sucking up dirt", "this is the sound of sucking up air", etc. Although I have never done this, obviously, this would be an easy theory to test... to provide now "familiar" sounds verses sounds that were completely "new" to see how the autistic child reacts to them. Of course, the more "realistic" the test situation, the better. To simply test this in a lab may not work as the child may want to put his hands over his ears in anticipation of hearing "new sounds" all the time. This one, however, is one that should easily enough be tested while on walks, etc. :o) My theory that autistic children can not properly process partialities would also explain several other things when it comes to sounds. It explains why songs, movies, etc. can't be interrupted prior to completion. My theory also explains why so many autistic children love songs... and can easily memorize them even though they have great difficulties in other areas of communication... songs have a definite beginning and a definite end. To interrupt the flow of the song and stop it prior to its completion, I believe would cause intense frustration for the autistic child as this would create a "partial" he is unable to properly process. I found with Zachary, simply saying: "all done" prior to interrupting a song or radio station helped him to anticipate the abrupt ending and thus helped him cope. The Deaf Child Syndrome... The theory of issues with "partialities" also explains the "deaf child" syndrome. The "deaf child" refers to the fact that an autistic child can be called by his name over 50 times and still not respond. It is as if he doesn't hear the parent at all. Yet, when tested for hearing, everything shows up fine. This happened with Zachary as well when he underwent hearing tests...nothing abnormal was found. His hearing was fine. Again, if you think about it, until "Zachary" has been labeled as "Zachary", he had no idea what that "sound" means no matter how many times he hears it. Human voices are all about. Autistic children, in my opinion, have come to accept those as "background noise" and so to hear someone calling out: "Zachary" would be no different than that person calling out "chair". To the autistic child, I believe, the human voice is something he has accepted as part of everyday life. However, when Zachary was made to understand that "his name", "his own label" was "Zachary", then, he responded. Again, it had been simply a matter of labeling HIM as a separate entity as well. I believe parents make the mistake of assuming the autistic child "knows" his name... I would argue that for those who appear "deaf", the issue is simply one of not knowing or understanding that they too have "their label"... "their name"! To teach him his name, I simply said: "What's your name?" and answered: "your name is Zachary". I did this over and over until he grasped the concept of name. It did not take long for him to understand... especially since I showed him how "my name was mommy", how "his sister's name" was Anika, how the "dog's name" was Patches and so on. He had heard all family members use these names... and so, showing him the names of others around him helped him to grasp the concept that he, too, had a name. As he finally understood the concept of a name, he would laugh as he said his name was "Zachary Patches" instead of "Zachary Brohart". He knew this "got a response" from mom, as I'd jokingly say: "no...no...no, you're not Zachary Patches" and to him, that was funny. But, finally, I knew he understood the concept. Once he grasped that, I taught him how to write and say his full name. He finally knew "HIS LABEL" and could easily respond when called.... and finally, "my deaf child" was gone! For more on the issue of the "deaf child" and the concept of self, I encourage all parents to also review my sections on "Look At You! The Autistic Child's Inability To Look In The Mirror" and "The Danger Of Pretend Play In The Autistic Child" as these sections provide what I believe is critical information when it comes to the autistic child's concept of "self". Strength Of The Autistic Child In Auditory Learning... A Yet "Untapped" Tool In The Life Of The Autistic Child... And Why Learning Need Not Be Visual Only! It has long been said that autistic children are visual learners. I believe they can be excellent auditory learners as well, as long as the "lesson" provides a sense of completion... for example, calling out each letter and letter sound was how I taught Zachary phonics (see Phonics section under Teaching Language To The Autistic Child)... in a matter of days. He learned his phonics not by sight and reading the letters, but simply by me calling out the sound for each letter... starting with "A" and working all the way through the alphabet to "Z". Once Zachary saw the "continuity" in what I was doing... and that he knew the alphabet started with "A" and ended with "Z" it was no trouble at all to go through the entire alphabet... since he wanted me to "complete the task"... to get through all of it... stopping in the middle, however, was a problem, but only at first. Once he identified each sound with a letter, labeled each sound as an entity in and of itself, he was fine with "mixing" the letters around, etc. The same was also true of spelling. I didn't have to spell out each word on paper. Zachary simply listened intensely as I spelled words for him. In no time at all, he was asking me to spell new words he had heard in order to "solidify them" in his mind... to understand the entity, the new word for what it was... a new part that could now be integrated into the whole. The other reason I believe that partialities and order are at play was because of a small experiment I did with Zachary. This was the "duck dog" experiment mentioned in Chapter 16 of my book, Saving Zachary: The Death And Rebirth Of A Family Coping With Autism. When I first came to the conclusion that "order" was somehow involved in underlying issues for the autistic child, I decided to do a little test. Since I believed the autistic child's world to be one of the autistic child attempting to "decode everything" to understand the whole, one of attempting to find absolute exactness in understanding how the parts fit together to form the whole, I wondered if Zachary would be puzzled if he heard something which was "out of the ordinary". I pretended to be a duck. I started flapping my wings and saying, “Zachary, look, I’m a duck...quack...quack...quack...”. When I knew that he had seen me “as a duck”, I continued flapping my wings, only now, I began to bark. Almost immediately Zachary showed frustration. He started to “butt me” with his head and said, “broken dog”. There were those "words to cope"... the word "broken" being used to deal with a part of his world he simply could not make sense of and as a result of his frustration, Zachary physically tried to stop the frustrating situation by actually hitting me with his head. As soon as I stopped the duck-dog thing, he was fine. Later, I simply labeled this "mommy's duck-dog" and Zachary no longer had an issue with the simultaneous barking and flapping of wings. :o) Thus, I can not help to conclude that although there are most likely some truly sensory auditory issues at play... issues helped by digestive enzymes that help to rid the child of the natural opiate effect of casein and gluten (including trace amounts in children who are casein and gluten free), I believe that as with vision, with hearing, too, there is more here than meets the eye... that the actual way in which the brain processes "partialities" or "specific sounds" in life is definitely at play... and that any "unexpected sound" (including a barking "duck-dog") becomes an immediate source of frustration for the autistic child... until that sound is labeled and seen as an entity in and of itself. :o) |
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