Therapeutic Listening

So Andy has been having some issues with noise and sound, so we signed him up for therapeutic listening. This is a program where the child listens to specially modulated sound, stimulating brain development. His first session was today.

The whole experience was overwhelming. He was in a new room, with a new person, and then she wanted to put headphones on him! Yikes! Insta-meltdown! Then she started noticing other things, and finally turned to me and said, "He really desperately needs this; but you know he has other issues, right?"

Riiiiiiight. Just what I want to hear on a Monday morning.

So we decided to just try to get him to put the earphones on this week, instead of having him listen to anything. Coming down teh road, I put them on, so he would see me wearing them; and he wanted them. So I handed then back to him... and he put them right on, and cheerfully wore them until naptime.

Riiiiiiight.

So the question is... how to control the overload? The earphones do not muffle outside sound, but I wonder if they control it some for him- so that it hits his ear at a certain angle, and if that would make a difference. I wonder if putting sound directly into his ear like this might not hurt. Yet, I can't send him to school like he is- there is no way he can focus on anythng in a classroom full of chaotic noise! Maybe sending him to a Montessori, where its usually quiet, would work better fo him than a public school. I suppose we'll have to wait it out and see. :P