Auditory Dysfunction

Liam's second Sensory Modulation Disorder characteristic Auditory Overresponsivness.  He is defensive to loud and very soft sounds and sounds at certain pitches.  This defensiveness is characterized by him feeling threatened by sounds that bother him.  They create HIGH anxiety in him.  He hears EVERYTHING!  And startles just as a baby would at unexpected noises or sounds.  This startle reflex is nowhere near the end of the reaction to the sound.  The reaction snowball's into angry, aggressive behavior in Liam.  Since he is constantly alert to sounds and noises, all of his energy is used for this alertness and will interfere in his learning, language development and social interactions. 

As a baby, we noticed this oversensitivity to sounds, especially plastic bags rustling or being excited to hear a train whistle from at least 3 miles away, and FAR before we could hear it.  Liam loves trains.  As a toddler, Liam did not begin many attempts at speech.  He did babble and could totally understand and respond to our speaking to him, however he was not developing his own speech. 

We decided to make an attempt at speech therapy for one school year, it was not yet recognized that Liam had SPD.  In looking back, these speech classes were of no use, because we were not addressing the underlying problem of SPD. 

Now that we have the understanding of Liam's issues, we are more able to help him be more functional and make adaptations to his surroundings to be more apt to tolerate all sounds.  The following list shows the characteristics of his Auditory Dysfunction:

Liam has a hard time modulating his behavior and is

• usually distressed by loud noises, including voices
• he will become very angry and sometimes violent if he hears shouting or at the slamming of a cabinet or any other loud noise. 
• It causes him to feel as if he is in danger, when he is clearly not.
• distressed by sudden noises, thunder, fire alarms, sirens, balloons popping
• He is also distressed at the 'possibility' of these sounds happening
• distressed by tinny or metallic sounds, such as those coming from a xylophone or clinking silverware
• distressed by high-pitched sounds, such as those coming from violins, sopranos and screeching chalk
• distressed by sounds that do not bother others, ie a toilet flushing, distant church bells, or soft background noise.

We are working hard with Liam to be able to respond more appropriately to all sudden, loud or high pitched sounds that irritate him.  We are guiding him to understand that he is not in danger and to discriminate between danger and what isn't dangerous and to respond to sounds that bother him by covering his ears with his hands.

Liam has difficulty with receptive language and

• is usually only able to follow one or two instructions in a sequence
• looks to others before responding
• will misinterpret questions and requests
• has some issues with discriminating sounds, especially consonants at the ends of words

As well, he especially has issues with expressive language and

• has been a late talker
• has difficulty putting thoughts into spoken language (and becomes very angry when he cannot express himself)
• sometimes talks "off topic" (ie talks about his new shirt when others are discussing zoo animals or a soccer game)
• has difficulty "closing circles of communication" (ie responding to others' questions and comments on demand)
• has difficulty correcting or revising what he has said so that others can understand
• has a weak vocabulary
• uses immature sentence structure (poor grammar and syntax)
• has a limited imagination in fantasy play

Liam has difficulty with his speech and articulation and

• is sometimes unable to speak clearly enough to be understood
• sometimes speaks very softly
• usually speaks hesitantly or without fluency or rhythm

In general, Liam is

• very tired at the end of the day
• can have little motivation or interest in academic work
• has slightly lowered self esteem
• shy and tends to withdraw from social situations
• greatly improves his ability to speak while or after experiencing intense movement (spinning/running/swinging/jumping)

In identifying these attributes, we are more able to help Liam to lessen his defensiveness.  In school we hope to help his teacher understand what his needs are.  Liam will benefit from being in a quieter classroom, placing him far away from bubbling fish tanks, air conditioners, doorways, and near visual cues to help him supplement the auditory information he may miss.  We will also place Liam back into speech classes and deliver the knowledge of SPD and his auditory defensiveness to the Speech/Language Pathologist in school.  We also hope to activate his speech through movement...active movement primes the pump and speech begins to flow.