looking for earplugs? ~autism related

[worm761]

my DS(11yrs) is high functioning autism/aspergers.... he seems to do better when the world is blocked out a little. i know that may not make sense. anyway, back story... a few weeks ago we went to the mardi gras parade and he melted down. kind of expected but he has done well in the past. we seem to be getting new issues lately and i haven't figured them all out. well we never leave the house without the nintendo ds..he has earphones for this because i cannot stand the constant sound of the mario brothers (current obsession). after the parade we had an eye appointment and i noticed that he had calmed down and was playing with another little girl but that although he had turned off the game, he was still wearing his head phones and that that seemed to help him cope with our world. so i started looking for some earplugs at local stores. but all i can find are noise cancelling (around 28 to 33 dbl) earplugs. this is something new for me. he has never shown a hearing issue before. other than fireworks, really hates the sound of those. any way i am looking for some noise reducing ear plugs but not something that would make is so he cannot hear. just something to help with background noises. did i ramble enough for ya? lol any suggestions are welcome. we have trip to disney planned for june and i would really like to have something in place before then. thanks for the help!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have a neice with an autistic 6 year old who used to ocasionally put his hands over his ears at the parks. They bought him a set of shooters earmuffs and got him to realize that when he was wearing them he lost his sensory overload.

Last time we were at the parks together he did not wear them all the time, but did let his parents know when he needed them.

I think they were Winchester brand and know then got them in the sporting goods department of a WalMart.

 

[ireland_nicole]

so this is probably going to sound stupid, but do you think he might be o.k. wearing the headphones he has now, maybe connected to an mp3 player so the can have sounds that calm instead of overstim? For what it's worth, my kids have the hunting type ones that Cheshire Figment was mentioning, and they're awesome, but do block quite a bit of noise. (which my kids need.) It might be that he just needs to replace the variety of sounds he can't control with some that he can... I don't know, but it's a thought.

 

[ireland_nicole]

Oh, another idea is earmuffs, they don't block sound but they give a little pressure and muffle sound a bit. Looking at his age though he might not go for those.

 

[BeckyScott]

For our DS, we use the little foam earplugs with the string connecting them. My husband brings them home from work sometimes (he works in a factory) (and I don't ask). I guess they're just your standard-issue factory earplugs, but I've seen similar ones at Wal-Mart in pharmacy. I keep a pair in my purse for just-in-case.

Our son can hear with them, it's just muffled. He only needs them for stuff like fireworks, although I'm suspecting he'll want them pretty often at Disney because the volume of some of the stuff is pretty darn loud.

 

[HopperFan]

DS has worn earplugs to WDW for 3 plus years, and in large situations of people, sporting events etc. We went from a hermit (for over a year) refusing to attend anything to enjoying everything we once did. They are with us everywhere we go, and now that he knows to ask for them.......sometimes we don't need them.

What is nice is he doesn't stand out as much as when he was wearing the headphones.

I don't think there is an earplug out there that really cancels out sounds.....

His are Silencio MDD-01. Rated noice reduction of 29 decibels. He can hear us and all around him no problem, and he has some hearing loss. Some places really loud he will listen to ipod with headphones over the plugs.

What I like is these (opposed to most in stores) come wrapped individually in pairs. We toss a few pairs in our bag, they stay sterile and ready to go.

I order online 100 pair to a box.

 

[rentingspace]

My son has head sets. That muffle out the sound when it's too loud. We put autsim stickers on them which has helped also. The headsets were great at WDW he would ask for them before going on a ride. Then people would see them with the stickers and would understand better. We found alot less people stareing at him.

 

[worm761]

thanks for the suggestions everyone. i will look into the earplugs first. at his age he is starting to notice that he is different. don't know how much he cares at this point. but i don't want him to be uncomfortable about people staring at him. he does wear the headset and he has an MP3 player. but he really likes to listen to rock music and prefers that his music be loud. for a kid that doesn't like loud noises i am constantly telling him to turn down his headset!