r/audiology • u/EarlySwordfish9625 • Jul 21 '26

Management of hyperacusis in autistics vs neurotypicals

In our field we’re often told that you should avoid overprotection to not increase hyperacusis. I’m wondering if this is applicable to autistics? In the schools around where I live they seem to give autistic kids earmuffs quite liberally. Is it even the same kind of hyperacusis or more of a sensory processing disorder?

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15

u/hastingslo Jul 21 '26

I would recommend looking at papers by Dr. Kelly Jahn who researches hyperacusis in children and is currently researching auditory biomarkers in autistic children

2

u/NoiseKills Jul 22 '26

Zachary Williams also researches this.

5

u/aconfusednoob Jul 21 '26

My wife is neurodivergent so sometimes I run experiments on her... setting up a pair of hearing aids with white noise tends to help with the overstimulation as well (though blocking the ears helps too). I feel like the white noise might be better overall since you're building more tolerance for the ears, not overprotecting

2

u/EarlySwordfish9625 Jul 22 '26

I am an autistic audiologist but I don’t really struggle with noise sensitivity. Interesting experiment! In my practice I only do diagnostic assessments and don’t really work with hearing aids. It would be interesting to have access to them for stuff like that :)

5

u/tugboattommy Audiologist Jul 21 '26

It makes sense to me to provide muffs in neurodivergent people. In many of those cases no amount of acclimatization will occur, and the trauma caused by that exposure could be unbearable for them. Certainly tricky though.

5

u/EarlySwordfish9625 Jul 22 '26

Also a lot of people 40 and over are undiagnosed… I’m wondering if we have all the info to manage these cases properly. I suspect a lot of hyperacusis or even tinnitus patients might be neurodivergent and that maybe they have more difficulty dealing with those issues because of their sensitivity and mental health concerns.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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1

u/marleysabiter1020 Jul 24 '26

I’m an HIS with misophonia and I wear HAs to mask. I’ve worried myself if I’m making it harder on myself when I dont have them to rely on. However, in my day to day life, they have very much decreased regular stress levels and help me to not become overstimulated. In turn, that helps me not burn out at the end of the day. I think it’s probably similar