DS7 is dyspraxic and has an IEP. He may have inattentive ADHD. He has some ASD like traits that are probably related to the dyspraxia (things like toe walking at times, hands waving around while talking, etc). I've never really noticed any sensory issues with him,and if he does have them they are related to being under-sensitive, like not knowing that food is getting smeared all over his face when he eats. Several months ago we noticed that he gets unreasonably irritated when people chew gum. He came home from school complaining that he had a really hard time in art class because there were kids chewing gum and he had to close his eyes and plug his ears the entire time. I asked what the art teacher did, and he said nothing. I emailed his classroom teacher and IEP manager asking if kids are allowed to chew gum in school because this is getting to be a real problem for DS and he is unable to focus if there is anyone even close to him chewing gum. They are saying that generally it's not allowed but it may be in some kids' IEPs. This school is the "ASD hub" so there are a lot of kids on the spectrum there. IEP manager said that they use earplugs or headphones for kids having problems with noise and they can try that with DS. But it's also the sight of kids chewing gum that drives him batty, not just noise. It completely grosses him out. If a kid is chewing and he can verify that it's something other than gum, then he's Ok with it. Anyone have any suggestions? I asked if the OT can somehow desensitize him to this and didn't really get a reply about that. OT sees him once or twice per week. Also, does this sound like a normal "gifted" hypersensitivy or does it sound more along the lines of sensory processing disorder? It's JUST gum...it's not like he has a long list of things that are intolerable. Overall he's very laid back about everything.

How about moving either the other kid or your DS so that the kid is out of sight?

I suggested this--we'll see what they say. I don't think it's just one kid. I'm imagining DS being surrounded by kids smacking gum--it's probably like a torture chamber. But he's probably over-exaggerating.

I feel your DS' pain.

There is a particular SPD-related thing that this sounds an awful lot like...

mine started about the same age. Now, I have hyper-sensorial phenomena/awareness in a number of dimensions (auditory is just one)-- but clicking, tapping, crunching, rustling, crinkling, chewing-- it's hellish* and yes that IS the word that I use.

This might be the onset of something called Misophonia. Just something to be aware of, as it isn't exactly the same as hyperacusis (though I have that as well, I think). I do NOT actually find earplugs/sound isolation to be as effective for me personally as an effective masking of the noise.

In some situations, however, earplugs (or just a cotton ball that you can quickly pull a couple of bits off of from a pocket) can make things tolerable. Use of headphones may not always be acceptable.



* go ahead, ASK ME how much I liked doing my subject GRE in an icy room with three other people-- one a gum SMACKER, one with a flaming head cold and a box of tissues and cough drops, and the other one of those fidgety people, equipped with a damned clicky-clicky retractable eraser?? One of the worst sensory memories of my entire life.

ooooh - me, too. I did my LSAT with the proctors chewing gum, whispering and - for some incomprehensible reason - tearing up page after page of paper. I ALMOST called and canceled my score, but didn't because there was no re-test before applications were due.

And it's still with me. I almost had to leave a fun airplane-airport event this weekend because they were broadcasting tower communications very, very loudly and the static and weird clicking sounds were sending me over the edge. I do have to remind myself about this when my son and/or husband are losing their cookies over their own particular sensitivities. We are a fun family, aren't we?

Guilty admission - I am a pen clicker. But I try not to ever have a clickable pen for that very reason!

Ok, I will try researching this. Gawd...I don't think I can deal with yet another disorder. And this one mystifies me. He used to get irritated with us at the table and yell saying we were chewing with our mouths open, making too much noise, etc. He has chilled a bit (or at least has stopped griping because we kept telling him it was rude...it's ruder to yell at someone than it is to chew loudly and Geez, just get over it!) but now it seems to be transferring over to gum chewing and school work.

I looked up hyperacusis and it says it can be caused by ear/brain damage. When DS had his brain injury/skull fractures, it was right on his right ear. He had one fracture in front of his ear and another (bigger) one right behind. I wonder if that's somehow related. And it's odd how it's just chewing/gum that annoys him so much not other random sounds.

I'm laughing because that cacophony is exactly what I experienced in my fourth year international trade theory final. I actually went up to the proctors, explained how much noise they were making, and asked them to step out of the building if they needed to continue talking, as this was a FINAL EXAM! I must have looked a bit wild-eyed, because they heeded my request.

Blushing. I'm afraid -I- was that fidgety person when I took the GREs. One of the other testers actually asked the proctor to tell me to stop wiggling.

But I say that it was just because there was too much dead time.

I thought that it was EXTREMELY odd that teachers told students that they could bring GUM to chew during the school's state tests last year. Um, seriously? I cautioned DD that she'd better not disturb others with it (because the very idea of ENCOURAGING gum-chewing DURING an exam, just sounds like a very, very bad idea).

Oh, and see, wiggling/shifting and normal (reasonably quiet) fidgeting isn't a thing at all for me. I can totally tune it out as background noise. It's very definitely certain types of noise that get to me.

His last school had no walls (or very few walls), so there were 100+ kids in one area with multiple classes basically separated by whiteboards or bookshelves. That didn't seem to bother him. He was spaced out, but he looked like he was daydreaming and not paying attention to anything going on around him. I asked him about his "issue" today and he said he's trying to deal with it but has more "steps"...no idea what that means!
He also said he discovered one kid was chewing starbursts and not gum so then it became more tolerable. I don't get it.

I am with HK, I find it much eaiser to cope by adding masking noises than by wearing earphones or ear plugs. I can cope with multiple people chewing or drinking far more easily than just one person near me doing so, which I think is because there is less other ambient noise to cover it up but also because there is absolutely no masking of what the sound IS, the sound is in complete focus. Also, it's much worse if I am trying to focus elsewhere. Someone chewing near me while I am working will lead to complete meltdown on a bad day.

blackcat - is it definitely the noise, or the potential noise, or is it the texture he's thinking of - can he not bear certain textures orally? He might be transferring this to horror of others being able to - and enjoying it. Just asking as it seems he is ok with the chewing if it's not gum? Starbursts might have a different texture, so may not freak him so much? If it is a texture thing then OT can definitely help for desensitizing.
Does he hate loud noises? Just trying to work out why only gum - maybe it's more that he's afraid someone may blow a bubble and he gets a fright when they pop?

If it's noise, maybe a listening program of some kind? Tomatis, The Listening Program, etc. This definitely helped us!

Sensory kids can have both hyper and hypo sensitivities, for e.g. DS8 is hypo to visual input, it takes a lot to full up his "visual stimulation" bucket, but auditory and touch? those buckets are the size of thimbles!

I'm totally with your DS on this. I find gum unbearably gross, and anything that makes me aware of it is a problem, whether it's the noise, the sight, or whatever.

The source of this aversion is heterogeneous. It's having seen (and creepily, accidentally touched) old gum stuck under school desks and movie seats. It's the chewed shape that gum takes on, when it's spit out or when it's visible in someone's mouth. It's the sound. It's the absent-minded way that people use it as a way to fidget, but with their mouths. It's the fact that it keeps being in their mouth, all spit-covered and being rolled around. It's the fact that the way it's going to leave the person's mouth eventually is by being spit out. It's the way a person will tuck their gum between their teeth on one side while they're talking to you, so you see it bobbing in and out of view.

So anything that makes me aware that someone is chewing gum triggers this whole sensory complex of awareness-of-gum-chewing. Maybe your DS has something similar going on?

Ok, it sounds like it's not as abnormal as it seems, since people seem to understand where he is coming from. I can too, to a certain extent. If I'm trying to read something complicated and Dh is sitting next to me making loud chewing noises, it's really annoying. However, DS seems a bit over the top. I've seen him actually pry DD's mouth open and inspect inside, like the "gum police" to make sure that what she was chewing was not gum.

We did a trial of meds (ritalin) the first few weeks of school and apparently he was having problems with gagging at lunch or saying he was going to throw up and wanting to go to the nurse all the time, which we haven't seen at home. I'm thinking it's a side effect of the meds, or it could be annoyance at the "chewing" going on at the table. We stopped his meds over a week ago and DS says he's not having that issue anymore. The complaining about gum (at school) didn't happen til after we stopped the trial of meds. So maybe when he is not medicated he is over-distracted by certain sounds/images. I think we're going to have to put him on meds again (but try a lower dose), so it should be interesting to see if the gum issue goes away. HIs IEP manager emailed me a long list of abnormal behavior that he's been having since we took him off, that didn't exist before: running down hallways, excessive silliness, lack of focus, perseverating (whatever that is), sticking his tongue out while writing (overflow), etc. etc. etc. Ugh.