{"id":1322,"date":"2021-10-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=1322"},"modified":"2022-12-13T15:24:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T20:24:23","slug":"206","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/206\/","title":{"rendered":"EP 206 &#8211; Hearing Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today we tackle our final sense, the sense of hearing, and how autistic children may react differently to sound than their neurotypical peers.  We discuss the importance of completing a hearing evaluation as well as some adjustments or accommodations you can make to help your child cope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-create-block-castos-transcript\"><div class=\"ssp-transcript\"><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col\"><div class=\"tabs\"><div class=\"tab\"><input type=\"checkbox\" id=\"chck1\"\/><label class=\"tab-label ssp-transcript-title\" for=\"chck1\">Transcript<\/label><div class=\"tab-content ssp-transcript-content\"><strong>Hearing Voices<br><\/strong>Show Notes for\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Embracing Autism Podcast<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/206\" target=\"_blank\">Ep. 206<\/a><br><br><strong>Introduction:<br>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0In this episode, we tackle our final sense the sense of hearing and how autistic children may react differently to sound than their neurotypical peers. We discussed the importance of completing a hearing evaluation, as well as some adjustments or accommodations you can make to help your child cope.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Welcome to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Embracing Autism<\/a>, a podcast for parents of autistic children seeking advice and support while spreading awareness and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m Lia!<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I\u2019m Matt!<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And each week, we\u2019ll discuss our journey with autism and talk about how to embrace your child\u2019s individuality while providing guidance, tips, resources and sharing our personal stories. This is \u2014<br><br><strong>Lia &amp; Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Embracing Autism!<br><br><strong>Discussion:<br>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Hi, all so today we\u2019re going to be talking about our final sense, the sense of hearing, this is the final, I guess, official sense, because I\u2019m not sure the other ones count as senses.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, we\u2019ll stop at five and not do the sixth sense.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s not do that one, that might be a little creepy. But yeah, our kids don\u2019t have the ability to see ghosts. I don\u2019t think\u2026 maybe I guess we\u2019ll find out.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0They are too young to notify us one way or the other.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, researchers are out on whether or not there\u2019s a correlation with seeing ghosts and autism. So well, we\u2019ll keep you guys posted if new studies come out.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Oh lord.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0But we\u2019re talking about the sense of hearing, which is kind of interesting for us, because we have the two kids that are similar in some areas when it comes to the sense of hearing, and then they\u2019re very different in other areas.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I would say that there is quite an overlap in their sensitivities. But not all the way I kind of think of like a Venn diagram, essentially, that we have the two kids and then their kind of overlapping areas of sensitivity. And then the drastic change that might affect one but wouldn\u2019t necessarily affect the other. So I mean, a perfect example for this is they both are not huge fans of like the vacuum, for example, our oldest is absolutely terrified where the thought of the vacuum she\u2019s off running, as were the youngest one, she\u2019s nervous around the vacuum but doesn\u2019t go off hiding. So I think that\u2019s one of the examples where they both don\u2019t like the concept of the vacuum or the loud noise that it creates. But then at the same time, there are other noises that one would tolerate better.<br><br><strong>Lia:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s like a combination of the over sensitivities and the under sensitivities. And again, this is why autism is such a spectrum because both of our girls are diagnosed but what exactly sets them off is not necessarily the same and they do overlap in some areas. So like one example that we had with our kid is the oldest one was absolutely terrified of any sort of toy that made any sort of noises. So for the longest time, we could not have any sort of electronic toys whatsoever. Or if they were electronic, we had to make sure it didn\u2019t have batteries or was turned off because it would completely set her off. That like sudden jarring electronic noise or sound \u2014 she would freak out and have a total meltdown. Whereas our other kid actually seemed to be attracted to that. So like, for example, when you think of those books that you like, push buttons in and they make sounds, I\u2019m not sure what those are called.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Audio sound effect book?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0A sound effect book? I don\u2019t know, people are gonna be laughing at us. Basically, with those books, one of my kids, the youngest one, she would love it. She would almost stim on it, where she\u2019d be pushing the same sound over and over and over and over and kind of like enjoying and laughing.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>And the oldest would basically be crying and yelling, begging her sister to stop it.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah the other one would be crying and like hiding and like trying to get it to stop. So it can be problematic if you have multiple children who are autistic, because they can kind of set each other off when one needs an input that the other person is averse to. And that\u2019s like a unique challenge that we\u2019ve run into.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And then on the flip side of that, the youngest one will be singing in the car, and her older sister does not want her singing under any circumstances. So she\u2019ll be kind of telling her to stop singing. So it kind of goes both ways, essentially, of how it kind of interacts with sound.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0I mean, and then it goes the other way, too. It\u2019s like it\u2019s almost like they tag team with each other on setting each other off. Because then the oldest one, the older one has gotten in the habit of wanting to like verbally stim a lot where she\u2019s like screaming are shrieking really loudly, just like for fun. Like she laughs afterwards. She thinks it\u2019s like a good sense\u2026<br><br><strong>Matt<\/strong>: A game.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, it\u2019s like auditory input for her. Like she likes the sound of it. And the youngest one is very sound-sensitive to that sort of pitch. So she honestly has to have these noise reduction ear muffs on all the time, whenever we\u2019re on car rides, because that\u2019s when the oldest one likes to scream more often. It totally triggers the youngest ones like she\u2019ll start crying. She starts just freaking out and kind of getting emotional. So it\u2019s kind of interesting to see how they\u2019re very opposite in certain areas, but yet they\u2019re both scared of like, a dog barking loudly.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, so I would definitely recommend as far as like having some type of like ear muffs. I mean, I feel like that is absolutely crucial because sometimes we\u2019ll be somewhere \u2014 in the car, for example \u2014 and our oldest is being loud. We\u2019ll see like our youngest kind of covering her ears just trying to block out the sound. So yeah, we definitely found that we need multiple sets of ear muffs kind of scattered throughout the house, car, everywhere just if we need to kind of pull out a pair to kind of put on her just to help a little bit that makes all the difference in the world.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, we\u2019ve kind of learned that you can never really have too many noise-cancelling headsets like, honestly, or noise reduction. Honestly, we have like three pairs and we feel like that\u2019s not enough. And we\u2019re like in the market to get more because we have some in the car, we need some of that house.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>We have some in the bedroom.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, we obviously need some in the bedroom, because sometimes the older one will scream during their nap time and trigger the other one.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Right, so we have been trying to find ways to allow the oldest one still to get the sensation that she needs, but then not completely disturb or disrupt the younger one. So I think of the one helpful thing that we had tried, and it kind of works sometimes is the cup that she\u2019s able to kind of scream into the cup.<br><br><strong>Lia:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So that kind of allows her to kind of get the sound that she wants, because she still has the vibration and the impact of the sound. But then it\u2019s also not disturbing her little sister.<br><br><strong>Lia<\/strong>: Yeah.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0But then that\u2019s kind of a hit or miss if she decides to do that.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, so that was kind of like a workaround that we did is like if you have a kid who\u2019s a screamer, one of the things that we came up with is getting like one of those red solo cups, for example, the bigger ones and just hand it to her whenever she feels the need to scream, and then we tell her to put it over her mouth and scream into the cup, and she can scream pretty loudly in that and it muffles the sound. So she still has the ability to do that and she just won\u2019t trigger her sister as much. It does also give a little bit of like a vibration feedback because the cup is up against your mouth in your face. So if you\u2019re yelling into it, you also do get a little bit of that like vibration sensory on your face, too.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right? So I didn\u2019t think that she actually liked it when we showed her that it\u2019s just if she\u2019s in the mood is there like a cup that she has around her? Otherwise, you have to go to track one down or try and make sure the other one has headset on.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, absolutely. Interesting things about hearing in autism is that they can have difficulty with hearing and a lot of times they are over-sensitivities or under-sensitivities. So one of the challenging areas in that is that sometimes children have difficulty blocking out other sounds. So if they\u2019re over sensitive to sound, it\u2019s kind of like if there\u2019s a dog barking, if there\u2019s a bird going off, sometimes it can also affect their ability to concentrate or pay attention to what you\u2019re saying, because they\u2019re too hyper-focused on that sound like that sound becomes a very distracting sound to them. Whereas neurotypical people can just learn to tune that out.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0I mean, maybe that\u2019s one of the cases because I\u2019m thinking of like, when we\u2019re taking our girls to the car, and I\u2019m talking to our oldest, and she is talking to me about all \u2014 I\u2019m saying one thing to her \u2014 and she\u2019s telling me that she\u2019s like, listening to the birds, essentially, that are making noise. And I\u2019m like, well, I\u2019m much closer to you trying to have like a conversation about like, oh, what colors do you see like in the trees, and she\u2019s telling me like she\u2019s hearing the birds. So it\u2019s like completely ignoring what I\u2019m saying. But finding another sound to kind of catch on to.<br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve noticed that when we\u2019re putting the kids into the car, a lot of times, she\u2019ll have this like zoned-out look on her face. And when I pay attention, I kind of start looking around, I\u2019m like, is she looking at something? It doesn\u2019t seem like she\u2019s looking at anything, she\u2019s just kind of spacing out. And then I realize it\u2019s because she is trying to listen to the birds and the trees outside.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So like, that\u2019s actually kind of a good point there is that sometimes we might think that they\u2019re not paying attention, but it\u2019s that they\u2019re just hyper-focused on something else right there and it can be auditory input.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right, and I mean, she would mentioned leaves or trees or dancing or something when she\u2019s paying attention to the wind. So just interesting that even though you\u2019re trying to probably engage in a conversation with them, or say their name, and they\u2019re not giving you anything back, it might not be that they\u2019re choosing to ignore you, but something else has fixated their attention, and that they\u2019re zoning in on that with their audio.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And there\u2019s like a bunch of different components to hearing when it comes to like the auditory system and autism. A few things that come to mind when it comes to autism are things like auditory cluttering. It can be kind of like anxiety-inducing to some autistic individuals, because of that difficulty with filtering and processing sounds like we just mentioned. So that means that for some autistic individuals, that can actually be a painful experience. I don\u2019t have any particular studies on that. But just based off of the studies, we\u2019ve heard from the other senses, I would imagine that it would also probably show that pain experience in the brain like it did with the other senses. That would be my assumption.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>I was going to say \u2014 I mean, since it\u2019s so prevalent, and all the others it\u2019d be weird if it was the outlier.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0I would be willing to bet that there\u2019s research out there that probably verifies that but don\u2019t take my word for it. Do a Google, Google Scholar search, not Google. But then there\u2019s also the over-sensitivity to sound so they can have really painful reactions to alarms, things like bursting balloons. Oh my gosh, our older one really had a hard time with that one.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0But then the youngest one loves it and then tries \u2014<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh my gosh.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 and sits on the balloon. So again, here we go again, with sending the other one into a meltdown of sorts.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. Like our oldest one hates popping balloons, like she gets so scared of it, but the youngest one absolutely loves it and will intentionally try to pop balloons.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Because she\u2019s small, so she\u2019ll use it as like her own bouncy ball and then bounce and then of course it\u2019ll pop.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, exactly. And then things like banging doors and dogs barking, those were the first things we noticed with our oldest one was she was as young as like, what, three, four months old?<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, she was only four months old and there was a dog that was barking next door to wherever we were and I remember she was absolutely terrified of the dog. And I mean, that\u2019s understandable. Because I mean, it was it was a large dog kind of barking kind of close to her. And I mean, think that was her first time that she\u2019s ever had any type of exposure to a dog. But we still see that even today, like, we went to the park today and there were two small little dogs that were kind of walking around just going on a walk. And she wanted nothing to do with the dogs. But then the youngest one wanted to run over and pet the dogs. So I mean, even that, that\u2019s three years later, and she still has that disconnect from any type of dog.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, exactly. And then there\u2019s like the under-sensitivity side, our youngest one, she, for example, I think, for the most part tends to be under-sensitive to sound because she has always even to this day had a really slow response to her name and getting her attention. We\u2019ve always considered whether or not she had hearing problems or anything like that, until we eventually got her tested. But it\u2019s kind of different for each autistic person in the sense that there\u2019s people like our older child who\u2019s super hypersensitive, and will react really quickly. And then there\u2019s others that need more auditory input to get a reaction. So these are the types of people who would probably prefer to listen to music really, really loud. So I know some people that like when they\u2019re listening to music in their earbuds, you can hear the music really loudly from the outside, and you can make out the lyrics, everything and all of that. And it\u2019s because they need a higher volume to get the same auditory input that a neurotypical person would probably be able to get at like a normal lower volume setting.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. I was gonna say, I mean, as far as getting the attention of our youngest one, I think that that can still be a struggle. I mean, at least it\u2019s still struggle for us. I guess, what would you say is the best approach that you have with getting our youngest one attention? I think for, for me, I think us trying to turn it into kind of a bit of a game kind of gets a better reaction than just us repeatedly calling her name if she\u2019s kind of zoning out or listening to something else. So I think for us, if we turn it into like a song where we kind of tell her to like turn around or something, so we\u2019ll kind of incorporate her name into the song and then suddenly, it kind of pulls her back a little bit where she hears something that she likes, because it\u2019s kind of a song that she loves music. So when she hears the song, she\u2019s pulled back, and then she hears her name and then she realizes that we\u2019re trying to call her.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, the thing that I\u2019ve learned through occupational therapists that kind of go along with that is that you tend to need to use things that are like high-reward, and whatever that thing is, depends on your specific child. So like for our oldest child, initially, she also didn\u2019t respond to her name. For her, the high reward was giving her a ton of praise. We would kind of get in her face a little bit when we call her name so that she would know that, oh, when we\u2019re calling your name, we\u2019re trying to get your attention. And then we would just praise her like, oh, yeah, good job, that sort of thing. And she was very responsive to that, she loves having praise.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And it was also like, tickling her so she would be like laughing. So she would get the idea that, oh, when I respond, when they call my name, I get tickles. And she\u2019s happy with the end result of actually responding to her name.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. But that didn\u2019t work very well, for the younger one. The younger one, the reward system for her is different because she is more of a gross motor kid and so for her, the reward system that we had to use was more motion-driven or activity-driven or things like that. So it\u2019s been harder with her, it\u2019s still kind of like a struggle to get her to respond to her name most of the time, but we\u2019ve made some improvement in that area by switching it to that sort of motion, gross-motor type of incentivizing.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Right, kind of the red light green light of sorts to kind of get her to redirect her body\u2019s motion. And then she likes essentially kind of responding back.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. And then when the sense of hearing, it\u2019s not just limited specifically to hearing the sounds, it\u2019s also understanding the sounds you\u2019re processing. So with autism, sometimes there can be difficulties in processing and understanding sounds, I believe, that\u2019s called auditory agnosia. That basically means that for example, if they hear a sound, they need to then be taught the association with that sound. So like, let\u2019s say that they\u2019re in school, and they hear the bell ring, they need to then be taught that when the bell rings, that means that\u2019s the time that you get up and go to your next class. It\u2019s not necessarily intuitive. So there\u2019s kind of like an auditory process like disconnect there between hearing the sound and then processing the meaning behind the sound. I thought that was interesting.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0I just thinking. I mean, the example that you gave me that makes perfect sense. I think about like our elementary schools, sometimes the bell would mean something for us and sometimes it was a bell for other kids to come inside, which had no bearing on anything that we were doing. So it was like certain times of the day, the same exact bell could mean totally different things depending on what time of day it is. So unless you\u2019re actually taught to incorporate, which I mean, most kids that kind of follow the flow of everything, but unless you\u2019re actually taught what that individual bell means, at specific times, you would be completely clueless as to what it\u2019s actually meant to be.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. And that can be difficult just for any kid. So just imagine how difficult it must be for somebody who has a processing disorder on top of that when it comes to understanding that information. So usually, you just got to give people a little bit more time, give them more examples, give them maybe visual stories or something like that to help them process what that means. And I think usually repetition helps with that too, kind of like a fire drill where you just practice before you do the actual thing. So maybe doing some sort of like drills where you practice, when you hear this sound, it means this. You could always turn that into a game to I would think. Another thing that falls in line with the auditory system. And autism is called meaning deafness. It\u2019s kind of related to the auditory agnosia. But this is like auditory verbal agnosia. So the other one is just being able to process and understand sounds, that\u2019s the auditory agnosia. But auditory verbal agnosia is going beyond that, and understanding what the language itself means. So in autism, that can be difficult as well. So that\u2019s kind of correlated with like the speech, the receptive, expressive speech stuff in the sense that you have to be able to use like, short, direct sentences, so that they can process the meaning behind it easier than if you gave them a complex sentence. So that\u2019s, again, part of that sort of processing where your ear is bringing the information in but there\u2019s some point where there\u2019s kind of a disconnect with the hearing part of the brain. So you have to kind of give them a little more time, give them a little less information, more bite-sized pieces, so that they can kind of get that to process a little more smoothly.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So in a way that would be kind of related to what we talked about in the speech episode, where we had very short, brief sentences that we would practice with our daughters to say when they were trying to make a request. So we would teach them to say \u201cI want chips\u201d, for example, instead of having a more complex sentence of \u201coh, can I please have a bag of chips, I\u2019m really hungry, blah, blah, blah\u201d.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a long sentence for a 2-year-old.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0But yeah I mean she\u2019s polite, because she says, please. So I would imagine it\u2019s kind of similar with that but instead of being a speech component, it\u2019s more the hearing components so kind of on the flip side, in a way?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, exactly. So it\u2019s basically like, the reason you did that under the speech area was because of a receptive processing issue. But the reason you\u2019re doing it in the hearing areas, more of an auditory processing issue. So it\u2019s kind of like a similar means to a different end.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>So it\u2019s like the opposite side of the coin.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Kind of \u2014 Yeah, of a five-sided coin?<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Sure, a die \u2014 let\u2019s say a five-sided die.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019d be a weird die. Yes. But anyway, back on track. So that was really interesting. And then the other thing that I learned about is something called tonal agnosia, which is like tonal deafness. And that basically means that some autistic individuals struggle with the ability to pick up tone. And this is also part of hearing somebody\u2019s inflection in their voice or emphasis in certain words. There\u2019s actually I think, in the autism tests, that\u2019s some of the questions that they asked.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So essentially, it\u2019d be them potentially struggling to pick up sarcasm, if they\u2019re talking to a peer. So if a peer was to say like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not hungry\u201d, clearly, meaning that they\u2019re very hungry, I wasn\u2019t sure if that means that they might struggle with the inflection that it means the opposite.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. Or like things like hyperbole when there\u2019s like an exaggeration in what you\u2019re saying, or it could also be like, when you add an emphasis to a word to give it another meeting. Like if you say, \u201cHey, look over\u00a0<em>there<\/em>\u201d, and you say it kind of like \u2018<em>there<\/em>\u2019 like, secretly, and then the person might be like, what look where you\u2019re like,\u00a0<em>over there<\/em>, like, they might not get that, you know. So it\u2019s kind of like the version of like, when you point to something with your eyes, because you want to be discreet, and the other person picks up on it. This is kind of like the audio version of that, where it\u2019s like you\u2019re speaking something in a certain tone, or a certain emphasis or certain way and that is giving a second layer of meaning to what you\u2019re saying. So if you\u2019re not able to understand that second layer, meaning you\u2019re more likely to take it very literally.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay, that makes sense.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So that\u2019s called tonal deafness, because it\u2019s like, specifically related to like the tone and inflection in the person\u2019s voice and how they\u2019re emphasizing things. And I think it goes both ways. So I think it\u2019s both a matter of not being able to pick it up when other people are doing it, but also not necessarily being able to do it yourself. So it\u2019s very common and autistic individuals part of the diagnosis process is they\u2019ll ask and see if the person has a monotone voice, for example. And that tends to be common to where people say that \u2014 monotonal is kind of like robotic. So sometimes there is no inflection. You don\u2019t speak with like a natural rhythm. It might just be more I think of like NPR.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, yeah, pretty much.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I kind of like that monotone type of news anchor voice.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Which I guess makes sense. If the understanding behind the hidden meaning in the language is kind of something that you\u2019re not understanding, then you wouldn\u2019t engage in that because it would be kind of irrelevant.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And none of this is to say that autistic individuals experience all of these things or even any of these things. These are just a bunch of different examples of different experiences that\u00a0<em>some<\/em>\u00a0autistic individuals have reported. But again, every person is different. So they might not necessarily have any of these or they could have many of these or a mix. So because of these hearing impairments that are possible or these sensitivities, oftentimes it\u2019s recommended for autistic individuals to go to an audiologist for hearing tests. For our children\u2019s autism evaluations, they actually asked us if they had their hearing tested prior to the assessments. So we did actually get them both assessed. Cool tip there, if your kid has not gotten assessed yet, the local public school system, at least in the United States, does free audiology tests. So we were able to get both of our children tested for free through the public school system.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0We did them \u2014 must have been before they were two I would imagine, right?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. And they do have like a kid version of an audiology test. So if you\u2019re just curious, I can describe it really quickly. I had my child and we went into like this soundproof booth, and I had her on my lap. And then what they have on the two corners of the walls is they have a toy, and a light and the toy, I think it was like, maybe like a clown with cymbals or something like that. It\u2019s kind of creepy, but I let them know in advance that my children were likely autistic, and very sensitive to sudden noises and sudden movement. So they were very understanding of that and they turned that component off, because usually the toy is used as a reward, so that if your child looks in the correct direction of where the sound came from, the toy is there and the toy will like make noises to reward them. But for autistic kids that can have the opposite effect.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>I mean, if it was a clown, even like you think like normal kids, it\u2019s almost like a punishment.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, it honestly reminded me a little bit of like a Jack in the Box, like it kind of was \u2014 because it would pop up, it kind of is like a Jack in the Box. Yeah, so it was, I think it was creepy, but that\u2019s what they\u2019re using. So what they do is they put the kid in there, it\u2019s kind of a really weird experience because it is completely soundproof. So when you go in there for a hot second, you kind of feel like you\u2019re deaf, because you don\u2019t hear anything at all. It\u2019s very unnerving. But you hold your kid in your lap, and then they\u2019ll do different pitches of sound. So they\u2019ll do different types of sounds, they\u2019ll do different volumes of sounds. And they\u2019re basically just gauging to see whether your kid turns their gaze towards where their sound is coming from. And that\u2019s how they know with toddlers and infants whether or not they\u2019re able to hear the sound.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>And I remember, I wasn\u2019t actually in the booth with you but I was like helping them get her to respond one way or the other. So I remember, they were asking as far as like, is there anything that she\u2019s interested in, so I was like giving them certain nursery rhymes to say certain lines to see if they would kind of get her to turn her head one way or the other to show that she\u2019s actually able to hear the song because I mean, at that age, I mean, she was so young, her language ability was almost nonexistent.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Since many kids on the spectrum have that whole receptive, expressive issue, that was one of the things that kind of fell in place with audiology exam too is that they will use phrases or questions that the child needs to respond to. But if you have a child who like ours at the time was very non-responsive, we had to get creative and we talked to the audiologist and kind of fed her things that we knew our child would react to, because it was a special interest of hers. So if you have a good audiologist, you can talk to them and let them know like, hey, they don\u2019t understand questions, but they will fill in the blanks to like this story, if you read a line from it, or they\u2019ll fill in the blanks to this song. That way, you know that they heard the sound, because they\u2019re responding to it by filling in the blank. So if there\u2019s anything like that, that works for your child, just make sure you inform the audiologist. And more often than not, they\u2019re willing to tweak the test to get it processed for your kid.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I thought that that was really helpful, because I mean, we were able to get the results that we needed to gauge where her hearing was at, because she was able to respond from the songs that she liked to hear.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And they also do a physical examination of your child\u2019s ear. So they looked inside both ears, they did like a pressure test and they also just checked for any physical obstructions like too much earwax, this or that. They tried to basically just rule out any other reason why your child might not be responding to their name, etc. So when we did that test, we got basically the clear that both of the girls had fine hearing, their hearing didn\u2019t have any difficulty. So we knew when we took that to the autism evaluation, that the results from that would probably be more likely due to autism and not due to any sort of hearing impairment. So if you haven\u2019t had that evaluation done for your child, I would just recommend that you do it just to get the clear and make sure because there is also a high correlation.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I was gonna say the exact same thing. If you\u2019re able to knock that out before you go out for a diagnosis, that\u2019s helpful, because that\u2019s one thing that you can eliminate, as opposed to having kind of something else up in the air like, well, are they autistic? Or is it a audio thing that they might not be able to hear? So it\u2019s better just to kind of cross that out as a possibility right from the start.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0What\u2019s interesting now that we\u2019re on this topic is I found a\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/hms.harvard.edu\/news\/hearing-autism\" target=\"_blank\">study that was done by Harvard<\/a>. This was fairly recently I think this was like December of 2020. And it\u2019s really cool because they found that they might be able to enhance early detection of autism through a newborn hearing test. The newborn hearing test for those of you out there listening, they do this for every newborn. So every time a baby is born, they just by default will do a hearing test just to make sure that the child is hearing properly and then flag if there\u2019s any concerns so there can be proper follow-up. And what they found in the study is basically that when they were checking for newborn hearing tests, specifically of the children who were followed through this study, they found that 321 of the 140,000 that were tested were subsequently diagnosed with autism and that those 321 when they checked their evaluation, retrospectively, they basically found that they had had a lower than average hearing outcome in that newborn screening. So basically, they either didn\u2019t pass or they\u2019re lower on the scoring than the neurotypical baby.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I think as soon as we read that story, study, we start to think back to our oldest, and I remember the nurses saying that they had to run the test a few times with her because \u2014 not that it wasn\u2019t inconclusive, but it wasn\u2019t registering where they needed to be, or something along those lines.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0The analysis showed that kids who are diagnosed with autism had abnormal newborn hearing tests, but they found that their brains detected sounds with a delay.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So that would kind of coincide with our oldest daughter because they ran the test multiple times, I believe.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s what they told us when we were in the hospital.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So when we saw this study, it was kind of interesting, because we didn\u2019t even think about that when our child was in the hospital. She was our first kid, we didn\u2019t really know what was going on. And they were running multiple hearing tests on her and I believe it was because they said that she was kind of like borderline or just barely failing sometimes. And then they basically wanted to just continue to test just to make sure before they said that she didn\u2019t have normal hearing. Right?<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. Yeah, I can\u2019t remember exactly what the words that they were using were. But I remember they had told us that they had done it multiple times, because it was kind of almost like, on the bubble, or that there was something that they wanted to double-check. And of course, that\u2019s being new parents were like, yeah, sure. Go for it.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, at the time, we didn\u2019t think anything of it, because autism was clearly not on the radar at the time. But retrospectively, like now that we think about it, it\u2019s like, yeah, you know, that probably was related the fact that she was borderline about to fail these tests, and they just kept having to run them. At the end of the day though she did pass them and then when they did their audiology tests they did pass them but there did seem to be some sort of like bump in the road there initially.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So if you have any hearing concerns, we recommend to talk to an audiologist just to kind of get some questions answered to kind of move from there. But also, that doesn\u2019t mean that that is your only course of action. We also recommend trying to make any and all accommodations that you possibly can think of just to help the kids along the way.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And depending on the age of your child, there\u2019s a few different options for any sort of hearing accommodations. One very common one is\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YxZTyn\" target=\"_blank\">noise-cancelling headsets<\/a>\u00a0(paid link). Noise cancelling headsets have an option so that you can reduce the amount of sound that\u2019s coming in. So you can turn that on and that\u2019s like an electronic component. That\u2019s really good for I think like teens and older kids who can use electronics. For very young kids, or just ones that don\u2019t want to use noise-cancelling headsets, you can just use\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Po30V4\" target=\"_blank\">ear muffs<\/a>\u00a0(paid link). I think those are also called like ear defenders. But those are basically just like a headset that\u2019s not electronic.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Just blocking out the noise?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, they\u2019re just like headsets that muffle sound, so you can use that and our kids use those a lot. A third option that is lesser known, there\u2019s these ear bud type of things that are from the company called flare, I believe they\u2019re called like,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3iZIfDl\" target=\"_blank\">Flare Calmer earbuds<\/a>\u00a0(paid link). I have a couple of these myself. And these are basically they\u2019re like earbuds that go inside of your ear. However, they\u2019re open and hollowed out. And what they do is they reduce the reverberation of sound in your ear. So you can still hear sounds but they tend to kind of mute the higher pitch harsher sounds like the nails on the chalkboard sounds. So you can still hear, they\u2019re not noise canceling, they\u2019re not noise muffling, but they kind of eliminate some of those like higher pitch squeaking, I would say like the more painful sounds.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I imagine for those that\u2019s probably older group as well.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So typically, it\u2019s the older group, but they just came out with their kids line. So now they do have some available for kids too. So those are just a couple of options. Just keep in mind what your kids&#8217; sensory needs are if they\u2019re the type of kid that can\u2019t handle something in their ear, or if they can\u2019t handle something over their ear. I have also seen these\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3BtAA6j\" target=\"_blank\">animal headbands, headsets<\/a>\u00a0(paid link) that go over the head on Amazon. We tried it with our kid it was a sensory nightmare, but I\u2019ve seen with other kids that it\u2019s actually a sensory savior. So this one is kind of like a workout headband that you put like a sweatband over your head. But the earpieces go over your ear, and it\u2019s just like a fur headband. So it\u2019s very soft and there\u2019s nothing that goes in in the air. So just depending on your kid, I will put some links in the show notes to all of these so that you guys can access them from there.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Otherwise, I think that pretty much wraps up the sense of hearing.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yep, I\u2019ll see you all later. We will be talking about fun new interesting topics so stick around.<br><br><strong>Outro<\/strong>:<br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0To review, we discussed how use of noise reduction earmuffs can help those hypersensitive to sound, how effectively using praise in your child\u2019s preferred activities can encourage them to respond to their name, and why seeing an audiologist may benefit your child if you suspect hearing challenges. Tune into our next episode where we discuss aphantasia or the inability to form mental images and its link to autism. We answer questions such as, what is aphantasia? How is it related to autism? And what senses may be impacted? This is Embracing Autism.<br><br>&#8211;<br><strong>Resources<\/strong>:<br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/hms.harvard.edu\/news\/hearing-autism\" target=\"_blank\">Hearing Autism \u2014 Early Detection Newborn Screening<\/a><br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YxZTyn\" target=\"_blank\">Noise-cancelling headphones<\/a>\u00a0(paid link)<br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Po30V4\" target=\"_blank\">Noise-reduction earmuffs<\/a>\u00a0(paid link)<br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3iZIfDl\" target=\"_blank\">Flare Calmer Earbuds<\/a>\u00a0(paid link)<br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3BtAA6j\" target=\"_blank\">CozyPhones over the ear headband headphones<\/a>\u00a0(paid link)<br><br><em>Disclaimer: As an amazon affiliate, AutismWish will receive a fee for any items purchased through our links.<\/em><br><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today we tackle our final sense, the sense of hearing, and how autistic children may react differently to sound than their neurotypical peers. We discuss the importance of completing a hearing evaluation as well as some adjustments or accommodations you can make to help your child cope.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"https:\/\/episodes.castos.com\/6067cc60525ae0-11655595\/9466ce9c-d633-4eb7-8f14-b10d2107eede-Embracing-Autism-206.mp3","transcript_file":"","cover_image":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Embracing-Autism-Cover-Art_Cover-Art-3000x3000-1.jpeg","cover_image_id":"958","duration":"00:30:45","filesize":"28.2 mb","date_recorded":"2021-10-15","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"29536257"},"tags":[23,22,24,115,39,28,27,63,25],"series":[30],"class_list":["post-1322","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","tag-asd","tag-autism","tag-autism-spectrum-disorder","tag-hearing","tag-neurodiverse","tag-neurodiversity","tag-parenting","tag-spd","tag-special-needs","series-embracing-autism"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/autismwish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Embracing-Autism-Cover-Art_Cover-Art-3000x3000-1.jpeg?fit=3000%2C3000&ssl=1","download_link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-download\/1322\/206.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-player\/1322\/206.mp3","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"https:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/Podcast\/B08JJPDQGX?qid=1626277344&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=SXD0A1WCBBTYHSS83ATJ","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/embracing-autism\/id1567815239","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9lbWJyYWNpbmctYXV0aXNtLmNhc3Rvcy5jb20vZmVlZA","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"pandora":{"key":"pandora","url":"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/embracing-autism\/PC:73138","label":"Pandora","class":"pandora","icon":"pandora.png"},"podchaser":{"key":"podchaser","url":"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/embracing-autism-1901089","label":"Podchaser","class":"podchaser","icon":"podchaser.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/feed\/podcast","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5LtFSpYK31jTAgRTKa8sCI?si=mT38lgU4TWqrP7AR7-Zn4A&dl_branch=1&nd=1","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/show\/embracing-autism","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"tunein":{"key":"tunein","url":"http:\/\/tun.in\/pkmkV","label":"TuneIn","class":"tunein","icon":"tunein.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/feed\/podcast\/embracing-autism","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"NrfJKG1hrQ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/206\/\">EP 206 &#8211; Hearing Voices<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/206\/embed\/#?secret=NrfJKG1hrQ\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;EP 206 &#8211; Hearing Voices&#8221; &#8212; AutismWish\" data-secret=\"NrfJKG1hrQ\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! 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