Noise Reduction Headphones For Autism

Today 1 in 150 people are diagnosed with autism. Parents are usually the first to notice unusual behaviors in their child or their child’s failure to reach appropriate developmental milestones. Whether the child has had difficulties from birth or whether they have suddenly lost skills, it is very common for these children to have a strong sensitivity to sound and noise reduction headphones for autism can help. Your child’s doctor may initially suggest that your child is fine and will catch up and that you should postpone taking action. Recent research has shown, however, that when parents think something is wrong with their child, they are usually correct. If you have concerns about your child, don’t wait to get your child screened for autism. Early intervention is critical in order to get the maximum benefit from therapy. Research shows that early intervention in an appropriate educational setting for at least two years can result in significant improvement.

Autistic children often show symptoms of Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) making it difficult to function in normal class room environments and even at home where there might be multiple children in the house. A child with auditory sensitivity may have trouble with filtering sound, distractedness, difficulty with spoken instructions, and may result in restlessness, impulsiveness, behavioral problems and and melt downs.

One of the tools that has been very helpful is a comfortable, effective set of noise reduction headphones. Many schools for autistic children as well as parents with autistic children are using the HP-25 Extreme Isolation Headphones. These headphones are speakerless headphones and provide a way to reduce the overall sound exposure to anyone with a sensitivity to sound. These headphones do not provide complete silence. You can still communicate with your child and your child is still aware of the sounds around them. The sound is just reduced making it less disturbing and disruptive. The headphones are adjustable and can be adjusted to fit both children, as young as 3 or 4 years old, as well as and adults.

Some “noise cancellation headphones” use batteries to power an electronic monitoring system which listens for ambient noise and attempts to produce a “canceling” sound wave inside of the ear cups. This style of noise cancellation is only effective for consistent, rumbling noises such as electric fans, and airplane engines. They are not effective for canceling spiky noises such as voices, and phones ringing. For people with auditory sensitivity, this style of noise cancellation is actually more harmful as the distracting noises such as shouting, alarms, or ringing phones are actually accentuated by the removal of the other ambient noise.

The Direct Sound headphones work differently. They do not use batteries. Instead, they work by physically blocking all types of sounds from reaching your ears. The Extreme Isolation Headphones reduce all sounds, both consistent, rumbling sounds as well as spiky noises. Wearing these headphones is like closing yourself off in another room. You can still hear background sound but the sound is significantly reduced.

The EX-25 Extreme Isolation Headphones are the same shape and size as the HP-25 Extreme Isolation Headphones but the EX-25 Headphones have speakers in the ear cups and can be used with a computer, an iPod, a portable DVD player, or any other type of audio device. It comes with both a 3.5mm audio jack as well as a 1/4 inch gold plated adapter. Using the EX-25 headphones you are able to block virtually all background noise by using the headphones in conjunction with a white noise audio track like a CD of an electric fan. While both the HP-25 speakerless headphones and the EX-25 headphones both reduce ambient noise by 25dB the remaining background noise can be masked out by softly playing some audio through the EX-25 headphones. Many people with auditory sensitivity are calmed by the soft sound of running water or air conditioners. The EX-25 Extreme Isolation Headphones can be a very effect tool.

Lastly, by using the EX-25 Extreme Isolation Headphones in a class room or home school setting you can provide auditory instruction to your child or have your child listen to audio instruction such as language lessons while at the same time reducing the background noises which may be distracting. Both sets of headphones are very helpful. The HP-25 speakerless headphones do not have a cord and can be worn all over the house. You do not have to worry with replacing batteries since they do not use batteries. So there is no hidden cost of ownership. The EX-25 Extreme Isolation headphones provide the same great noise reduction but also have speakers and a cord so you can listen to various audio sources while still blocking out distracting noise.