How Ren conquered his fear of loud sound
Ren has fear or has a sensory overload every time he hears loud sounds. That started when he was just 4 years old. Β Whenever he hears a person talking on the mic he can’t bare it and he usually get out of the room or asks us to get him far from the area while he is covering his ears and crying.
To avoid being judged and getting attention from other people, what I did at that time was we stay away from loud area. Β We don’t go to birthday parties or events that I know that there will be loud sounds and people speaking on the mic.
But when I raised this concern to his occupational therapist, he told me that we needed to expose him more to loud areas and try to remove his hands on his ear one at a time. Doing this might help him to overcome his fear and learn to control his sensory on his own.
With that advice, I conquered my own fear of being judged by other people and just said “yes” to all the birthday parties and events that we got an invite.
It’s hard at first because he tends to runaway from the area and just wants to find a comfort zone to avoid the noise but I didn’t give up and would ask him to go back.Β At first it was just 30 minutes of exposure but later it became longer and longer until he was able to tolerate the loud sounds.
As of now, we are enjoying birthday parties and I am not worried that he will runaway and cry. Β Sometimes he still cover his ears when the music starts to play but after a few minutes, he voluntarily put down his hands and enjoys the party.
Besides, he now loves to sing at Videoke π
Here is a video that my cousin who just got home from Singapore took last Saturday:
I’m glad that you and your son has learned to cope up with his fear of loud sounds. It is really necessary to face your fear instead of running away from it. A couple of years ago, I’ve watched this show on a foreign channel entitled Obsessed which featured people with extreme fears and obsessions. The therapists pointed out the importance of “exposure” where the person faces his fears to be able to conquer it eventually. My toddler is afraid of elevators. It started when he was about a year old. He’s now 27 months and he’s yet to conquer it. We’re still in the process of exposing him.
yes our little ones was just like that, he cries at parties and shows