Autistic Reactions to Sights and Sounds

Every autistic child or adult is not the same. A sound or sight, which is attractive to one autistic child, may be painful to another. A flickering fluorescent light may cause distraction to some of them. It is also most likely to cause sensory overload in children who flick their fingers in front of their eyes. Using incandescent bulbs instead of fluorescents can sometimes be helpful to these children.

Most children with autism are scared of the public address system, the school bells or the fire alarms, because the sound hurts their ears. Others like screeching electronic feedback from public address systems or the sound of fire alarms are the worst sounds because the onset of the sound cannot be predicted. Children with milder hearing sensitivity can sometimes learn to tolerate hurtful sounds when they know when they will occur. However, they may NEVER learn to tolerate unexpected loud noise.

If there is a fire drill in your school, autistic children with severe hearing sensitivity should be removed from the classroom before it starts. Failure to do so may cause these children to become afraid to go back into the room because of the fear that the fire alarm or the public address systems may make a hurtful sound again.

To avoid this, the buzzes or bell should be modified to reduce the sound. Sometimes only a slight reduction in sound is required to make a buzzer or bell tolerable. Duct tape can be applied to bells to soften the sounds. If the public address system has frequent feedback problems, it should be remedied or disconnected. Noise and echoes can be reduced by installing carpeting. Scraping of chair legs on the floor can be muffled by placing tennis balls on the chair legs.