Toddler Cries When We Count

	Back to Autism Information >> Next Topic
	Hi, My 2.5 year old hates when people count. She gets extremely upset and cries. It's very selective though, sometimes the Count on Sesame Street can count and she's fine or I can count her toes and she laughs. If Dora or Elmo count she loses her mind and screams. My stepmother counted the other day and Ruby ran out of the run screaming. I don't know how to deal with this. What can I do to desensitize her from this? She can't go through life avoiding hearing people count.  I'm hoping she'll grow out of this fear. We have a newborn and the poor baby gets startled when Ruby screams. My dd lost her mind when we sang the alphabet song and anytime someone said "amen".  We would say grace and she went crazy after saying amen.  I thought it was when we all said it together, like singing the abc's but it didn't matter if only my husband said it.  She didn't get better until last year.  I asked her teachers to sing the birthday song during music time at her school everyday.  I don't know that it helped though.  I think she just adjusted on her own but maybe yoy could have counting time everyday.  If all else fails, cut out Dora and Elmo.  It may be their voices counting that bother her.  (We still whisper amen!)One of the little guys I work with used to have a hard time with mom talking, about anything. And then out of nowhere it changed to mom talking, and to me talking (mom thinks it's because I spend so much time with him.) He would cry, scream and hit when either of us would talk to anyone (including himself). How we addressed it was just ignoring him. We'd talk and talk and talk until he'd stop with the behaviors, and as soon as he stopped we would too. This took about two weeks, and still does it occasionally, but it worked! Maybe you could try it with the counting, and just keep going until she stops being upset about it...good luck! Has counting ever been associated with punishment (such as 1-2-3 magic), commands (1-2-3- go)?  Or anger ("I'm going to count to 10...") ?  If so, it could be an out of control feeling that is triggering her reaction.  Since she probably has a hard time picking up all the cues in her environment, she doesn't know what to expect AFTER the counting.  I don't know if this would explain the problem with Elmo and Dora, though. Just brainstorming here... Hi, No, we've never used it for punishment or anything negative. I even count her toes before bed and she laughs when I do. It's weird, the videos she is used to are fine, they can count and she doesn't get upset. I'm sure this will pass, everything she starts seems to eventually go away, but it takes months and months. I just feel bad for the baby, she gets startled when Ruby screams out of nowhere. Thanks for the brainstorming! My dh would like to scream when he hears Elmo and Dora, too Dooder didn't want my mom or dh to sing for a while - and protested LOUDLY about it.  Not sure why, but it passed...  good luck! Something about octave sensitivity is the first thing that pops in my head... My son is 4 1/2 and still screams when we sing songs - he's been doing this since he was a little over a year to. No idea why either!
	Copyright Autism-PDD.net