Hello!
I'm new here to your forum. I have often noticed that children on the "Autistic Spectrum" often suffer terribly from strange anxieties. For my seven year old daughter, who has been diagnosed as PDD-NOS, she has a horrible fear of elephants. She is not afraid to look at them, but she is terrified by their trumpeting sound. As you can imagine, we have a hard time watching most Disney movies, i.e. Tarzan, Dumbo, Lion King, and even some great television shows, like Sesame Street. She runs from the room screaming with her ears covered. My husband and I have tried to encourage her not to run away, just block out the noise as best she can, but the noise still overcomes her. Any suggestions?
From my psychology education (way back when) I seem to recall something about slowly introducing something that your child fears until you get them to the point where he/she no longer fears it. For example, you can use a recording of an elphant's trumpeting and play it at an extremely low volume (whatever doesn't send your daughter into a panic, even if the sound is barely audible). Play the trumpeting sound at that low volume for several days in a row, until she's fine with it. Very slowly (like, this may take weeks), increase the volume to whatever level she can tolerate and then keep it at that volume for a few days. Eventually, she should be able to handle the sound. You may wish to have something pleasant going on while you're playing the sound for her so that she starts to relate it to something happy and fun (for example, play it while she's eating ice cream or while you're playing with her).toadtoes,
Have you ever tried Auditory integration Therapy? My son does not have a problem with sounds or noises but I have read about children that do. I do not however know the sucess rate of this therapy or how to go about getting it but I did find a web-site that talks about it. By the way...welcome to the board!!!
Karrie
here is that site:
http://www.vision3d.com/adhd/index.shtml#AIT
Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. I tried a stuffed elephant toy which made elephant trumpeting sounds - but that sent my daughter running for the hills. She even put the stuffed animal in the trash can. I am willing to try anything!
WELCOME TO THE BOARD TOADTOES!!!!
I have to keep all things AWAY from my Son that "set him off". He's deathly afraid of dogs & cats, ferrits too. We've tried having cats & dogs...little ones, but it still didn't work. His fears are very real to him & for whatever reason....I don't know, but he just freaks out when a dog or cat are anywhere he can see them! There are 2 dogs that roam this neighborhood, & BOY OH BOY does my Son WATCH for them...THEN RUN from them! He's 9y/o & no matter how much we try saying "It's a nice dog..cat..whatever" he just goes beserk! Now we DO have a rabbit, & since it's in a cage, he's FINE with it. We let it roam the house while we're cleaning it's cage, & our Son hides in his room....plays his video games or just plays until the rabbit is safely back in the cage. God Bless you & your Family & keep you all safe! LINDA...aka Tony'sMom...aka MWN64 We can relate. My HFA is terrified of dogs. We can't go to lots of friend's homes b/c many of them have dogs. She will look at pictures of them and can hear barking from our backyard. However, if she sees a real one, she loses it. We wanted to get a small dog to get her used to it, but I'm very worried about how she might react and then what? Anyway, just thought I'd let you know that you're not alone in this. Suzanne Welcome to the board. You are not alone. My Alex (4.5 yrs pdd-nos) is deathly afraid of bald eagles. Go figure. Of course, our local zoo has two injured eagles that are recovering and on display. They are right next to the food court. Needless to say, we must eat our lunch on the gorilla side. The first time he noticed them, he started to melt. I promised I would always protect him from the eagles. That seemed to help. Hang in there, they do have a habit of surprising you with anxiety when you least expect it.
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