headphones

Aloha, magnificent moms and dads. Mary Koska here with Ohana OT and this pep talk video or PEP is parent empowerment program is about the use of noise reduction headphones. These are just such a wonderful tool to help our kids, our sensory kids. So many of them have auditory sensitivities. Especially when you go out in public, especially places like restaurants or any public bathroom that has those loud automatic flushers, they don't know when it's going to flush the loud hand dryers. Everything's so loud. And these can just make the world so much better for the kids. So there's all different kinds. Basically they're just noise reduction headphones. And depending on where you are in the world, they're sold in different types of places. Here there's a nice store called Harbor Freight that has a lot of tool, like different discount tools, that kind of thing. Wherever they would sell, if you're in an area where they sell guns, there's going to be some really strong ones for not hearing. You can get actually noise cancellation headphones for those. So anywhere there's ear protection, they're going to have. So for anything like tools, that sort of thing, there's going to be a place that you can buy them. And the thing about them is you don't want to give up on these.

Too easy because what happens is you.

Put them on the child, they take it right off and you think, oh, it's not going to work. Well, there are kids that might take a whole year to get used to wearing these. I had one child who was so severely auditory sensitive and especially was especially concerned about fire alarms. When he came to my clinic, he searched and searched and looked for where is the fire alarm? And I'm like, there's no fire alarm here. And then he went out into the hallway and he looked up and he showed it to me. He found fire alarm. He, he was so scared of fire alarms. Always thinking about it, always preoccupying him because it was so traumatic when one would go off. And so he, the first time he put these on, he couldn't handle the feeling of him on his head. And that's most kids. They just don't like the tactile feeling. And so we would just play little games. My turn, your turn. My turn, your turn. Probably half a second. And then gradually stretch it out to a second a minute. Have them do something else while they're on playing a game. Do kinetic sand, gradually get them more and more used to wearing them. So we did that. We would just Stretch the time that he could wear them. Well, just a little story about the fire alarm. So his caregiver figured out they went on the phone and they. They got a video of a fire alarm going off. And they could turn sound way down. And then he would play a little game where he would go touch it and then he'd run away and then they'd make it a little louder, a little louder. And then he got to where he would put these on and then he could hear the sound and be okay with it. Well, I'll never forget one day he came in so proud. He just was standing up tall. He just walked in and we have these hanging in every room. And I think there should be multiple of these hanging in every single classroom that anybody who needs them could just put them on anytime they need to cut out some noise to focus or just to be more comfortable. Anyway, he came in and he was just extra standing extra tall that day. And he walked right over to the headphones, he put them on his head, and then he walked right into the bathroom. And he would never use our bathroom. We had to take the little potty out. We had a little froggy potty, and we'd have to kind of put it out in the hall, kind of a. Like an entry to the bathroom, semi private. And we'd have to put it there for him to go because he would not be anywhere inside where there was a flushing toilet. So anyway, back to the story. So he walks in, goes over, puts the headphones on, turns, walks and goes right into the bathroom and uses the bathroom. And his mom and I just looked at each other in shock and it was amazing. And it took a year to get to that point, but he had finally put it all together. Like, I can use the regular bathroom if I put the headphones on, it'll be okay. So pretty powerful. Pretty powerful tool. And like I said, sometimes you have to build up really slowly over time to get them used to them. But once they have them, it's life changing. This story, the same story, same little boy. He also got to where he could go out to go to places in public, perform in the Christmas show with his class with his headphones on, Just participate in everything. So much more because he felt in control that he wouldn't get overwhelmed by the sound.

Hi again.

I am so glad that you took.

The time to watch this video and I'm really proud of you because I know you're busy and it takes time to sit down and focus and learn something new and just really proud of you. Give yourself a pat on the back. You're going to see this after each video because I just want. I just want to reinforce you and just let you know I'm proud of you. And change isn't easy. Some of these things, you hear the idea and then implementing it. You know, we're all habitual, so it's.

Not always easy to do.

So just do your best to make little baby steps forward and make little changes that are positive and keep watching. See you in the next video.

Aloha.