Dec 26 2008
Noise Sensitivity but Not to Singing Plushies
Hope you all enjoyed/are enjoying your holidays! We spent Christmas day visiting family. Although it was a long day involving a good bit of travel, it was lower-key than usual, which was a good thing. The last leg of our journey was to my husband’s aunt’s house.
They have a collection of singing plushies: singing Christmas trees, snowmen and penguins, dancing Santas…the works. There was even a tree that danced and walked toward you. Gus is always fascinated by them. He especially enjoys making them all sing at the same time! So apparently, his noise sensitivity does not extend to lots of different toys singing different songs all at once! But when his sister cries it’s like the end of the world as we know it. As irritating as all the mixed songs were to me, the unabashed bliss on his face eventually made me keep my mouth shut and just let him have his fun.
Always interesting to note all the little nuances of Gus’s Asperger’s and Sensory Integration Disorder.
Did you notice anything new or interesting over this holiday?
I am sensitive to noise and sound myself: People’s voices, the TV in the background, etc, can drive me nuts. In fact, I am much happier watching the TV with the sound off and closed captioning on. But I can listen to music all day! This isn’t that unusual with people on the spectrum, I’ve found, but it does add to the weirdness of it all.
I hope you are having a great day, Andrea!
Yes, isn’t it fascinating sometimes what sets them off and what doesn’t. Alex flipped out when my step brother-in-law’s girlfriend accidently pressed on the button which turned on all sorts of very loud christmas music - it was a major meltdown. Yet, he had the sound effects for their train set turned all the way up and then was playing with a singing santa that was way more obnoxious than the tree music from the remote. My theory was that he got upset because he didn’t control the tree music, but the others he was in control of. We waited all night to see if he played with the remote for the other music but he didn’t, which surprised us.
I’m glad Gus didn’t get too hurt from the treadmill. I know Alex has a pretty big pain tolerance and sometimes the ‘big ones’ don’t bother him, but the little stuff - forget it. And clipping his toenails - yeah, the whole county hears it!!!!
Hey reading this short article got me thinking about my sensitivity to some noises. I can’t stand the sound of a dog barking,or many loud noises for that matter. I hated the noise of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine as a kid. I don’t know if this means anything or what, but this article just got me thinking.