Hearing

What if the world sounded like the static between two radio stations with split seconds of one channel, then the next and the ear-pitching shrieks as it modulates back and forth? What if you tried to listen to your mother over the constant sound of nails scraping on a blackboard? What if every conversation in the restaurant was as loud as the one at your table? What if the fluorescent lights sent out a high-tone that caused your toes to curl? What if the ice-maker and the vacuum cleaner were so loud that you felt a plane was about to crash on your house?  How “normal” would you be if you had to deal with these sounds 24/7?

Welcome to Trent’s world. He can hear dog whistles. He can hear elephants. His hearing is so profound that even the tester who was an expert in the field had his results reviewed by her professor. Trent can speak in five octaves. That is a superhuman feat. Even opera singers who have trained their whole lives can sing in three-four octaves – but that is their singing voice.  Humans can only speak in one octave. Speaking is aligned with hearing ability. You reproduce sounds in your speaking voice that you can hear.

Years ago with there were breakthroughs with some with autism, much was made of auditory therapy.  For some, it seemed the miracle cure. For those whose only sensory anomaly was hearing, having their hearing integrated and modulated opened up the world to them and made many of their “isms” disappear.

Our Trent went through a decade of auditory therapy including AIT and SAMONAS. It made a vital improvement in his condition. He still wears headphones almost all the time to muffle sounds.  But he has learned to filter sounds to some level. We had to adjust our lifestyle to make the world less painful for him.

One simple adjustment: When we first moved to our home on the Island, Trent would not go into the den/office. If I did take into it, he would flee a quickly as possible. We found out that the lighting (fluorescent) was sending out a high pitch that was extremely painful for him. We changed the lighting in that room and he was fine. I’ve talked with many parents who cannot take their child shopping because of all the fluorescent lights used in the big discount stores. 

This hearing goes beyond just volume to pitch, modulation, frequency and tone. There are tests to find some of these conditions. A normal hearing test is not going to address the special issues, you’ll have to find someone who specializes in testing children with autism to determine their needs.

Therapies are getting more readily available and affordable. When we first did AIT it cost us thousands of dollars and two weeks of travel four hours from our home. Now we use an adjusted system in our home (we purchased the sound equipment) so Trent could have the therapy on a daily basis. 

As with the other senses, if we would just imagine how we would respond if our senses were acting and reacting as our child’s is, we would understand why they behave as they do, we would seek out physical therapies and remedies, and we would be far more compassionate to the pain and suffering they go through just trying to operate in a world that is so painful to them.

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