Effectiveness of Earmuffs and Noise-cancelling Headphones for Coping with Hyper-reactivity to Auditory Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Objective/Background: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effectiveness of standard earmuffs and noise-cancelling (NC) headphones in controlling behavioural problems related to hyper-reactivity to auditory stimuli in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Twenty-one children with ASD aged 4–16 years (16 boys and 5 girls), after a 2-week nonwearing baseline period, were asked to use standard earmuffs and NC headphones for 2 weeks, in a random order. Parents or teachers rated participants' behaviours that were related to their reaction to auditory stimuli. Results: Four participants refused to wear either the earmuffs or the NC headphones. It was found that the T-score on the Goal Attainment Scaling was significantly higher during the earmuff period than that in the baseline period (Z = 2.726, p = .006). The behaviours of 5 children with ASD improved during the NC headphone period as compared with those in the baseline period; there were no differences in the T-scores on the Goal Attainment Scaling between the NC headphone period and the baseline period (Z = 1.689, p = .091) and between the earmuff and NC headphone periods (Z = −0.451, p = .678). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the effectiveness of standard earmuffs and NC headphones in helping children with ASD to cope with problem behaviours related to hyper-reactivity to auditory stimuli, therefore, children with ASD could use earmuffs to help to deal with unpleasant sensory auditory stimuli