The Torment of Sound.
People generally associate hearing problems with an identifiable hearing loss but there are several other auditory difficulties that can have a devastating effect. These can, at times, make many apparently ordinary situations almost intolerable for the child. The problems include:
- Poor auditory discrimination. He may mishear some letters or words or be unable to pinpoint where sound is coming from which can be quite confusing.
- Hyperacusis - hypersensitivity to sound. Particular everyday sounds are painful to him. The sounds that cause problems are individual and range from quiet sounds such a clock ticking or people eating to louder sounds like vacuum cleaners and food mixers. This is often associated with loudness intolerance i.e. when the child - cannot tolerate the same level of noise as his peers, becoming very upset by loud noises such as fire alarms.
- ‘Supersensitive hearing’. He may also be able to hear noises (or conversations) that others are unaware of – which can be linked to a mineral deficiency.
Many children with ASD are tormented by everyday sounds, that most of us ignore or at least tolerate, which constantly impinge and intrude upon them. These auditory difficulties can also make many areas of the home very difficult for him as well as making shopping, the playground, classroom and even trips out potentially distressing and frightening.
Such problems can also underlie or aggravate speech and language problems and will mean that child needs to concentrate much harder than his peers in order to make sense of the spoken word - which can be particularly difficult in noisy situations.
The child with such problems may react to these noises in a variety of ways eg blocking his ears; withdrawing into himself; running away from the situation or having a panic attack.