Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Treatment for Hyperacusis?

Hi
New to this board and welcome the wealth of wisdom here.
I have a 4.5 yo son recently dx'd w moderate Hperacusis (it was suspected he might have APD but that was ruled out). He is currently in OT for SPD and as yet undiagnosed w some language processing issues (possibly expressive language disorder). His speech is excellent. He's was reading well before age 3.
It has been recommended that we do the Auditory Integration Training (10 days, 2x per day in Audiologist Office) for help w the Hyperacusis - has anyone had a successful outcome w this type of therapy?
Thanks
Deirdre

Hi Deirdre -
I wish I had some knowledge in this area. Anyone?
I found this on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis#Treatment
Love and More Love,
Grinity

The audiologist who evaluated my daughter in Kindergarten (she's just finishing 3rd grade) called it "accute hearing" and said that in his opinion the auditory integration training was still controversial. He didn't recommend it, it was never covered by insurance, and we never did it.

She's definitely had lots of SPD issues...

Certain frequencies and levels have affected her since birth, mostly noticable since 6 months when she started getting "out and about" more often. It does affect lifestyle, especially kid things like movies and b-day parties in certain environments (why do they always have to be in bounce places, trampoline places, bowling alleys, arcades...?!) Indoor swimming pools for lesson times and public swim have been troublesome (we did do private lessons last year when it was just her and the instructor).

It was recommended that she wear ear plugs for PE and cafeteria but that failed due to teasing and trouble managing the ins and outs.

I homeschooled her for last half of K and all of 1st grade...

But a quiet school rather than a bigger public school might help if you can swing it.

She is also very bright, reading that early and lots of other things. When she's having issues people have suggested ASD. Never diagnosed, clears up outside.

They just said that she would learn to tolerate it over time...which she has, but it does affect lifestyle for sure and leads to meltdowns and, more now, agitation (biting nails, figiting). It absolutely does get better as the years go by, just be patient and try to be understanding and not punishing.

Several people including that first audiologist and a music teacher when she was 3, and more since then said per observation she most likey has "perfect pitch".

One thing that really helped when she was age 5/6 is that she had a piano teacher who did duets with her. This was to train her to "block out" what the teacher was doing and concentrate on her own sounds. They had some fights/meltdown issues at first but the teacher was fantastic (they were both intense and musical) but it worked really well.

I hope this helps!!! Think of it as how it could be a benefit and go from there. A few people told us that the audiology training to reduce it in the long run might take away from any musical channels it might be good for. That's an opinion of course!

Ear plugs, training to focus on certain sounds (like that Tuby the Tuba thing, Peter and the Wolf) are really good.

Certainly it's a controversial science so you just have to research as much as you can and try and do your best for your child!
p.s. when not using electronics (which really seem to agitate her...there is a litte buzz) I made sure everything was turned off and the power strip was off too. This is environmentally and finacially friendly and also reduces any frequencies that can agitate the child that other kids or adults might not even notice.)

Interesting, I've never hear of this diagnosis but the way the pp describes her dd sounds just like what my dd13 experienced. She, too, was diagnosed with SPD and was extremely noise sensitive. We, too, homeschooled for a while in elementary and she had a 504 which allowed for seating away from things like the heater and pencil sharpener and a quiet environment for testing. My dd used to yell at her sister for breathing too loud!

We never tried any treatment for this but I can say that it has gotten much better as she's gotten older and, while she is still noise sensitive, she seems to have learned how to tune out distractions on her own over time. As a baby, she couldn't sleep with even the slightest noise. She was one of those stereotypical pin-drop wakes her up type of babies.

I'd also never heard of hyperacusis so I googled it to get an idea. I'm also not familiar with the term "Auditory Integration Training" - but I googled it and it seems to be the same type of auditory therapy my dd10 went through when she was 5 years old (it was called Listening Therapy and was offered through our children's hospital). She did her therapy at home 2x per day every day for several months. Prior to the therapy she was extremely sensitive to noises - she would complain about the tv being on when she was in another room and we could barely hear it, she couldn't be in the house if we ran the vacuum cleaner, hair dryers freaked her out, etc - and she also complained that she couldn't understand what her teacher said in class because she heard so many other noises. She also had SPD and vision challenges and a few medical challenges too. Listening therapy worked wonders for her - she sat down and sat still and colored for the first time in her entire *life* during her sessions the very first week of therapy. Her kindergarten teacher knew she was going to OT because she had to leave school during the day once per week, but didn't know any of the details re what she was doing at her OT appointments. About 3 months into her program he told us that he didn't know *what* we were doing but whatever it was, the program had made a world of difference in dd's ability to focus and follow along during class.

I think our dd's auditory challenges were a bit different from your ds' challenges, but I wanted to let you know that yes, there is at least one child here who benefitted from this type of therapy

Best wishes,

polarbear

Was it "The Listening Program" that you did? It was recommended for my DD but kind of got lost in the quagmire of other things we were doing already. She hears something like a SD more than she should, in lower registers in particular. And has diagnosed APD (and ADHD-I, dyslexia & SPD)