Note: after writing this post and after re-reading some of Kids Speech Matter, I’ve had a thought and talk with the Scientist. We feel that it’s time to get Curly re-assessed because he’s clearly showing more sign of something not ‘100%’ with his hearing or something. Could it be Sensory Processing Disorder? We won’t know until we get him checked. Anyway, here goes what I wrote earlier.
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It had not been that tough for my mother-in-law to find a parking spot, so we managed to quickly park, jump out, collect Curly from after-school care, change his clothes and walk him to the disco.
This was the end-of-term disco on the afternoon of Friday 28 June. After my last meeting with his teacher, where we discussed his progress with crowds and how he was now actually properly verbally interacting with his classmates, I felt it was time to introduce Curly to a slightly bigger crowd and let him attend his first ever ‘proper’ school disco.
I recruited the assistance of my mother-in-law because my husband was unable to make it. After all, my husband dislikes noise and large crowds, which made it a much better idea to drag along someone else.
I was so excited for my son, who is only five and autistic. He’s been fine at cinemas and fine with music at my friends’ house parties. But this school disco’s music level was a total party pooper which left my son no choice except to ask to be taken home within 3 minutes of entering the school hall! “Too loud, Mummy!”
I’m a 30-something adult with perfectly good hearing. Around us on Friday there were many other parents who looked like they could barely stand the noise, and many had to leave their preschoolers inside and stand outside instead and supervised through the glass doors.
The music volume was way too deafening and unhealthy for any creature on this planet unless they were deaf. Up against the walls stood eye-squinting parents, some of whom were exchanging the lip-biting, head-shaking and shoulder-raising, not-so-secret codes to express their surprise.
My son led us outside, and I said to my mother-in-law let’s give him some time, with the hope he might change his mind and then we’d go back inside. I was kind of hoping he’d say no, though, because I felt if I went in there my migraine would be triggered. I’m not exaggerating! It was THAT loud.
This disco was louder than the noise level you get when you’re watching an action movie at the cinema. I could barely hear the screaming children who tried so hard to make their parents hear them sing ‘Gangnam Style’.
Hasn’t the school administration ever heard of the dangers of noise, especially for such small children? I wonder then whether they are doing anything to safeguard the children’s hearing as part of their classroom and outdoor activities.
Why wasn’t the DJ instructed not to drown a kids’ event with such loud and deafening music? Why isn’t it also the DJ’s responsibility to maintain the proper level for children’s entertainment?
But I wasn’t alone. A few of the parents who arrived at the same time as us were leaving as we left and one of the dads with his three little fairies was trying as hard to make them stay to have some fun. But the girls would not go back inside and the eldest whinged that she couldn’t hear her friends.
I listened to my child and as he repeated a fifth or sixth time “I want to go home” I respected his decision and took him home.
I’m so disappointed at the school team managing the disco for not realising how loud it was. I’ll be sharing my opinion on a feedback form on Monday. I feel I must because I pay fees of over $1500 per year and the disco is part of the ‘service’ my child receives from that. So as his Agent, I must represent!
In the meantime, while I get over this, here’s a little bit of information on
- Keeping Your (Child’s) Ears Safe From Noise
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Kids Speech Matter
Have your child ever been forced out of the disco or other activities because it was too loud? What methods have you used to help your child overcome this?
