Our story of a future for my daughter with improved sound tolerance changed our lives in countless ways: mood, learning, and wanting to make friends. After about a year, she even wanted to work! Now, she enjoys people and even cares for small children. For me, her improvements in sound tolerance took away my fears about her future as an adult. I am so glad I took one more chance by reaching out for help from Cheri.
Sound Tolerance, Shyness, and Kindergarten
My daughter did not talk much when she was little and was shy about interacting with people. I sent her to a private Christian school for kindergarten hoping she would come out of her shell. Unfortunately, there were more problems than just shyness. I just did not know what it was. Sure wish I had known we needed to improve her sound tolerance making it easier for her to hear other people. I remember feeling concerned when her teacher shared that my daughter was having trouble memorizing the alphabet, including letters in her name. By the end of the school year, I decided to homeschool her, along with her two brothers who had been homeschooled for the past six years.
8 Years Old, A Worried Mother
When she was eight years old, I had her tested with Woodcock-Johnson. How could I improve her learning? The test showed the absence of academic abilities with a diagnosis of learning disabilities with significant processing deficits. I was more than depressed; I wondered what I was going to do. Now I know that auditory training would have improved her ability to distinguish sounds and tolerance of other sounds while listening.
I learned about the National Institute for Learning Disabilities and found a wonderful educational therapist who worked with her for many years. She improved my daughter’s visual-motor skills and reading abilities. However, she continued to struggle in ways I couldn’t understand nor offer solutions to ease them.
A Future for My Teen Daughter
Just as I was wondering about the quality of my daughter’s future, I met Cheri Moore. I was intrigued by what she shared regarding her own children, background in special education, and research. She asked all the right questions about difficulties I had recognized in my daughter. But, I did not know how to improve her sound tolerance or that it was such a big part of her difficulties. Nor did I realized they were mostly caused by weaknesses in her hearing. For example: she became fatigued after reading, to the point of having to go and take a nap. When her brain was being stimulated too much, she yawned excessively. She would regularly cover her ears when hearing certain sounds and complain.
Before Improving Sound Tolerance
For a long time, my daughter avoided going outside without sunglasses. Back then, Cheri did not have her wonderful website with blogs and a webpage about sound intolerance. But, she did give me lots of educational documents. One document was about the benefits of healthy fats improving the eyes’ ability to tolerate light. Within weeks of taking Efalex, an omega supplement, our daughter no longer needed sunglasses to go outside. Wow!
She struggled to speaking and seemed to lose her words. Despite working hard, she continued to struggle academically in reading, spelling, and writing. Hardest of all was her absence of friends and isolation. Her sound sensitivities and poor socialization skills kept her home where she felt safe, physically and emotionally.
A Comprehensive Hearing Test Confirms Significant Sound Intolerance
Cheri encouraged me to have her hearing tested using the Berard hearing test guideline. Surprisingly, her hearing evaluation report showed painful hearing in the areas of speech and environment. No wonder my precious, brave daughter preferred to wear earplugs and stay home. She also did not use both ears for hearing on all frequencies. Cheri explained this was the brain’s defense mechanism to lessen painful hearing. I finally had answers and hope. We were ready to improve her sound tolerance.
A Future for My Daughter with Auditory Training
(picture not of a client)
My daughter completed the in-home Berard Auditory Integration Training (AIT) program to improve her sound tolerance. During the same year, she also completed Dianne Craft’s Brain Integration Training. These were writing eights along with fun activities to improve her auditory processing skills. During that year, I began to see quite a difference. She was able to retain more of what she learned and didn’t forget the previous day’s lesson. She slowly became less sensitive to sound.
Three months later after an AIT booster program, her speech became more fluent and mature with a more appropriate pitch noticeable by others. I was thrilled when she started enjoying trips outside and began wanting friends.
After six months, my daughter completed a second AIT program and continued Brain Integration Training. She continued to make so much progress with improved sound tolerance that she started looking for work. Now, she is working two jobs! Wow! At one she enjoys meeting each new person. And at the other she takes care of three small children. Sometimes the baby’s cry causes discomfort, but Cheri shared with her that it is normal for some sounds to bother a person. Those sounds cause us to act, to take care of that little baby.
Improved Sound Tolerance, a Blessing
After twelve months, the hearing test showed normal sensitivity levels to sounds heard in the environment. Also, testing showed that both ears worked well together on all frequencies. Surprisingly, my daughter requested one more session, because she would like to improve her speech fluency and ability to tolerate quiet sounds. We are confident she will continue to make progress.
Update
Years later when I read, How I Improved Expressive Speech and Fluency, memories came rushing back. I had forgotten how much auditory integration training improved her ability to say what she wanted to say and sound tolerance. My daughter is thriving in all areas of life.
A Mother’s Thankfulness
