I'm a slacker, trying this again…
Like many (all?, most?) kids/adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, my Ellie is not a fan of noise. Sadly for her, she has two sisters who sing All. The. Time. And they sing loud, really well, but loud. There current favorite is songs from Shrek: the Musical. Generally Ellie will just hide or go elsewhere, but today she was trying to have lunch, and was torn between running away and eating. So she had a small meltdown instead. I had not noticed the signs of her stress, being involved in lunch making and other things, so it took me a minute to realize that a) she was on the bring of losing it and b) I was the one putting her there by adding my imitation of Snow White in Shrek the Third summoning the birds (aa-aa-aaaaaa-aa).
I know I need to be more sensitive to Ellie's noise sensitivities, I do. Generally, if I sense her distress, I will have her sisters stop or go elsewhere to belt out show tunes. Ellie is sometimes able to tune things out, so I forget how much noise bothers her at times. I should pay more attention though. In June, Ellie was able to go to our church's girls camp for a week (I and her two sisters went as well). Before we left, her dad gave her a present; pink earplugs. Ellie burst into tears of relief and gratitude. Dangit, we should have given her those long ago.
In July, we were going on a trip to see my parents. We gave Ellie some noise canceling headphones for the car (cheap ones that mostly muffle the sound, but better than nothing). She started wearing them immediately, and whenever she could get away with it. Again, maybe this should have been a gift seven or eight years ago.
Ellie is awesome, and I think puts up with more than I give her credit for. As school approaches and anxiety levels increase, I worry about how best to help her navigate this crazy, noisy world, especially when I am sometimes part of the problem. I guess we'll just keep learning AS we go.
