Son hearing sounds like in a "movie"?

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Hello all
I have an 8 yo boy who is diagnosed with Aspergers (anxiety and dyslexia as well). Earlier this week he had a melt down and anxiety attack. A few things triggered it, but what he told me was that he could not understand when i talked and that he felt he was in a dream. Since then it hasn't stopped. He says it's like in a movie when the actors talk, but their voices don't match their mouth! Almost like when you are watching a film that was dubbed in english. I don't know if he's just thinking about it to hard or what! He also said it's like i'm talking...but he doesnt know where the sound is coming from. Like it is coming from behind me.

I have taken him to 2 doctors. Both see nothing wrong with his ears and won't refer him to a specialist to get it checked. He hears really well, and can hear me if i whisper and i'm turned away from him!

I don't know if this can be linked to aspergers, or even the anxiety and dyslexia. I'm wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else?!

I feel so helpless. It's like all of a sudden he feels he is different from everybody. He has been in tears saying he wants to be like everyone else...and he does't feel like he is. He says his mind is different. He now says he walks different, and is nit picking everything about himself, which breaks my heart

might not be an ear problem. might be neurological or psychiatric. try a different specialist.

Sometimes it can be hard for people with autism/Asperger's to process visual and auditory input simultaneously, it's why we tend to avoid eye contact, because it can be overwhelming and confusing when we're trying to process what someone is saying. Temple Grandin talked about how, as a child, if people didn't speak slowly enough, all she heard were jumbled consonant sounds that ran together and made no sense. It's possible your son is experiencing some manifestation of this. To my knowledge, the only thing that can cause difficulty locating the source of sounds in individuals who have normal hearing, is when the pinna (cartilaginous outer ear that you can see) becomes blocked, because all the ridges and curves in it allow the sound to bounce off them at specific angles, which tells the ears which direction the noise is coming from. However, I'm no expert on the subject, and would second Cathylynn's suggestion that you visit a neurologist or psychologist. It's possible it is related to the anxiety in some way, the way people can sound distant when you're anxious and distracted by something else.

As for your son's feeling that he's different, you can try a few different approaches, including reading books about other individuals with autism, finding or starting a group where autistic kids can hang out together, or even just pointing out the ways in which he's the same as those around him, while still emphasizing that being different is a good thing, and can even be preferable to being normal like everyone else. Good luck!

I have seen a video several times online about it saying how out of since things are for autistic kids. Mouths move but words don't seem to match, it's like watching a youtube video when it gets out of sink. I don't remember the url but I had seen it posted on Facebook on autism awareness pages.

When I was a child I had this issue but I think it might have been due to hearing loss I had and then I had my hearing back and I didn't know where the words were coming from so I would look around when I would hear talking so my parents had to hold a favorite toy up to their faces so I could see their mouths moving. Words also sounded gibberish and I also left endings off of words like Temple did but for me I couldn't hear the sounds in the words. Sure my hearing was tested at normal but I still had problems with sounds and hearing them and knowing where they are coming from.

I experience this from time to time and it's pretty unsettling. Like stuff and people around me are not real and it's like I am watching a movie. What I see and hear does not match up. There is a good chance that for me, it's more my dysparxia that causes that more than my autism. Has he ever been tested for dysparxia? It's pretty much in the same family as dyslexia as far as I know. Does he have problems with hand to eye coordination and timing? Is he sort of awkward and clumsy in general? Is he getting enough sleep? Enough electrolytes?

This is normal for someone having a meltdown.
It probably happens to most people when they are emotionally overloaded.
Processing environmental stimuli becomes a problem.
Probably nothing to worry about regarding his ears or brain, as long as he is not like this most of the time.

That is sometimes what my auditory processing disorder is like when I'm really physically exhausted & emotionally/mentally drained. The only difference for me is that the voices are choppy, like when old film movies would jump. With an APD, ears test out fine with a standard "hearing" test because of the way the tests are designed. Neurologically it is very much analogous to dyslexia but for ears (ie people w/ dyslexia can have perfect vision but language based visual processing has timing problems).

One way to potentially, sometimes see if it's something like an APD: If he can understand speech with one person talking slowly and clearly in a silent (no echoes!) environment, but not when say a radio tuned to a talk station is playing at some lower volume in the background. Or if you are crinkling a chip package while talking to him, etc.. Anyway, try googling APD / Auditory Processing Disorder and see if it fits?