Pay Attention to the Sounds in Your Home
Auditory stimuli can be just as distressing as visual stimuli to people with autism. Your home should be a tranquil retreat. Often, children and adults with autism will have heightened senses of hearing, and they may pick up on sounds that you cannot hear or find themselves uncomfortable with sounds that seem at a normal level to you. This can lead to problems, especially if the individual is unable to communicate what they are hearing.
Though devices like noise-canceling headphones can help, you may wish to take additional measures to ensure your child is comfortable at home. Here are some ways to modify your home to reduce unwanted sounds and the stress they can bring.
Address the Flooring
- Replace hard flooring with noise-dampening carpeting. The sound of footfalls on hard surfaces can be quite loud and distressing to an individual with autism. To dampen the noise, use carpet instead of wood, tile, or laminate flooring.
- Invest in a high quality carpet pad. The pad can reduce the noise from the flooring even more, so do not skimp on this area.
- Use rugs to dampen sounds on hard flooring. If you need or desire hard flooring, consider using area rugs to add a dampening effect on the flooring. Soft textures absorb sounds much better than hard surfaces.
- Evaluate risk factors for falls. Falling at home is a risk for senior citizens and individuals with special needs who have balance or motor coordination issues. Handrails and no-slip flooring can make a big difference.
Protect from Outdoor Noise Pollution
- Protect your child from sounds from the outdoors that can be stressful or disrupt sleep cycles. Remember that you may not hear all the sounds that your child can hear. Whether it’s ordinary city sounds or construction noise, it can affect your loved one with autism. Insulated windows are good at blocking noise.
- Install sound absorbing insulation. Specially designed insulation that dampens and absorbs sounds can keep those outdoor sounds from entering your home.
- Consider an extra layer of drywall if insulation is not possible. This will have the same effect as sound-dampening insulation and may be easier to do.
- Be aware of the problem of echoing in large, open spaces. Though open spaces can be helpful for individuals with autism, they can create echoes. These sounds are stressful for autistic children, even if they are barely noticeable to you. You can protect from this by adding soft textures to the floor and walls to reduce the echo. Strategically placed soft furnishings can also help.
- Focus on the autistic individual’s bedroom first. If your budget does not allow you to do all of the rooms in your home, make sure you insulate your autistic family member’s bedroom first to reduce or eliminate outside sounds.
- Install thicker windows to dampen outdoor noise pollution. Look for windows with thick glass, laminated layers, and space between the window panes. Also, secondary glazing and specifically produced noise reduction glass are features that can help.
Additional Considerations for Noises at Home
- Choose high-quality home audio equipment. The subtle differences in sound quality between different types of audio equipment can be painful for individuals with autism. Invest in higher quality equipment that produces good sound quality.
- Understand that some individuals with autism will ignore sounds. This presents challenges of its own, because alarms in the home, such as smoke detectors or CO alarms, may be ignored. Consider investing in visual alarms if this is the case.
For more information about the sense of hearing and individuals with autism, and what you can do at home, visit:
- Autism Speaks: Autism and Auditory Processing Disorder: What’s the Connection?
- Synapse: When The World Won’t Shut Up
- Friendship Circle: Noise Control – 11 Tips for Helping Your Child with Autism Deal with Noise
- Northwestern Early Intervention Research Group: Sound Sensitivity in Autism
- National Autism Association: Autism and Sound Sensitivity – More Than Just a Mild Issue
The above information is from Christy Clawson from wondermoms.org sent to me on Sat 12/06/2021