My son makes really strange noises

Page 1 of 2 [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

basketcase
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 28 Nov 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 1

29 Nov 2010, 4:13 am

My 14 year old makes weird noises. He started with sirens at 7 and at 12 he changed to airplanes or jets, we live near an air-force base. He also puts his hands in front of his face and wiggles his fingers.

I have asked his pediatrician, he just says it's anxiety disorder. This will go away when he gets older. How much older? It's been seven years already. I have decided to try something else.

He also has ADHD and some other learning disabilities. He is in ed special classes at school.

All in all he is a wonderful little boy. :? :?



liloleme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Jun 2008
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,762
Location: France

29 Nov 2010, 7:02 am

Vocal stimming is very common with Autistic people. When I first saw the title to this thread the first thing that popped into my head was "join the crowd". My Autie has more vocal stims than my Aspie's and myself. My older aspie used to hum to herself when she would get nervous or overwhelmed now she just plays very repetitive music (techno). Its the repetitive nature that is calming. I learned to keep most of my vocal stims to myself, in my head, because when I was a kid no one knew I had Autism so I was punished more harshly than I would hope any child with known Autism would be. I still sing small repetitive parts of songs or hum. My Autie (The Autistic Princess) makes all types of noises and sings repetitive songs with real words or made up words. She also clears her throat but as someone else mentioned this is typically only when she has a cold or a sore throat...but its is far more and frequent than would a typical person do. She does this a lot in her latest video. My Aspie son makes a lot of noises too....most of the time its "meow" or he will hiss at us. He also will repeat words over and over.
I do know, even though this is something that tends not to bother me as much as most people, that this can become annoying. The best way we have taught my daughter to stop is to redirect her and give her something else to do, like listen to music. However, most of the time we let her do it, it is only when it is very loud and seems to be escalating that we step in. We have tell her that she can sing her song or make her noise five more times and then she has to stop for awhile and we will do this or that. Its not easy and you need to find your own thing that works with your son. We also use the phrase "quiet mouth" for my daughter and this was reinforced with pec's cards for when she needed to quiet down and listen to teachers or therapists.
I will agree with everyone else and you that his teacher is out of line and needs to be more understanding. Nothing makes me more angry than these people who say your child is trying to annoy them. That is like saying that babies are crying to annoy you. They do things with a purpose and it is not to annoy someone else....as a matter of fact the last thing an autistic is thinking about while stimming is ways to upset other people. These types of things are mainly to soothe ourselves.



angelbear
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,219

29 Nov 2010, 11:20 am

My 5 yr old son (PDD-NOS) has been doing this now for almost a year---He is doing it at school and at home. I agree it is verbal stimming, and we have tried everything to figure out why he is doing this. When he was a toddler, it started out as repeating words and phrases. When he turned 4, it changed into odd and annoying noises, singing at the top of his lungs, and changing up words to songs, etc......just like you described your daughter Lilolme. It is becoming very problematic. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE my son, and I understand that some of this is out of his control, but honestly, some of it, I feel like he is doing to get a reaction from us.

At first I think he may have started it as a coping mechanism, but I think he realized he enjoyed doing it, and he just likes to do it sometimes to stimulate his brain or something when he is bored. He is in a special needs class with 4 kids and 2 teachers. He gets lots of one on one attention, and he is not being picked on. He also ENJOYS loud noises. For instance, if he hears a loud siren or noise, he laughs and says "Mom, was that loud?" He was out in our back yard at 4th of July just loving the fireworks go off. So, I am not sure anymore if this is why he is doing the noises.

The teachers at school think it is sensory related, and they have him on a sensory diet. It is not working. I think he is doing the noises as a way to avoid doing work that he does not want to do. At home, if I say, it's time to do our homework, he will sit down with me and instantly start doing the noises.

Also, I thought maybe it was Tourette's, but my son has full control over the noises. If I offer him a reward to be quiet when we go somewhere, guess what? He doesn't make the noises.

At home with me in the afternoon, he is pretty quiet, but as soon as my husband comes in from work and tries to start a conversation with me, guess what? He starts making his noises to interrupt our conversation. We have started telling him, "You can make your noises, but you will have to go to your room to make them. You can make them all you want in your room" When he gets in his room, he is quiet.

This is becoming overwhelming to me. My son is TOTALLY VERBAL. He can speak in full and complete sentences. It is just so frustrating, because he is probably going to continue to be put in special ed classes because he would be too disruptive in a regular class. Even though he is fully capable of learning. He is learning even in the midst of all of his noises. But, I can see how this would be extremely disruptive in regular class, not to mention the bullying that would probably take place. So, I think we may end up homeschooling him. I am not even sure how that would go, because I am not sure how much he would do for me.

Also, it is causing problems in our home life as well. My husband is part Aspie himself, and is very sensitive to the noise. I can block some of it out to a degree, but after awhile, I can't take it either. We are trying very hard to approach this in a way that doesn't seem like a punishment to our son, but it is draining.

I guess I am just venting in this post. We just got back from a roadtrip from Thanksgiving, and my son spent hours in the car doing this. In spite of all of our efforts to give him movies to watch, music to listen to, things to draw, things to eat, etc...... It just makes me want to cry sometimes, because I feel like my husband is always agitated, and I am always trying to help my son do something else. I have NO answers for this, and it has been going on for a year now. I guess I just have to accept it, and move on.