. They were pretty much glued to my head.”
The event is one example of how headphones, earmuffs and earplugs are a simple yet effective tool for the neurodiverse community. Rather than discouraging interaction with others (the historical stigma of headphones), their use can open up the world for autistic people. Many use headphones to self-regulate by reducing noise that can cause sensory overload while providing something of a weighted hug for comfort.
“It kind of makes me feel like I’m also in a cubicle in an office, and I really like tight spaces. So it makes me feel like I’m in my own zone,” says Grant, adding that she prefers a headphone style that covers her whole ear.
Grant has experienced stages where she needed headphones on at every waking moment to avoid that sensory overload, which she describes not as a panic attack but as a physical pain.
It kind of makes me feel like I’m also in a cubicle in an office, and I really like tight spaces. So it makes me feel like I’m in my own zone.
“… over time, as you get older, living with autism, it turns into a lot of chronic fatigue because of living with that pain if you’re not regulating it.”
Grant has reduced her use of headphones as a self-regulation tool by pressing into Te Ao Māori practices and “learning how to understand by natural sensory aspects”.
Tommy and Henry, nine-year-old twins, use earmuffs to self-regulate.
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Angela Cuming, a Dunedin-based freelance journalist and mother of three, calls headphones and earmuffs the “MVP” (most valuable player) when it comes to autism support. She has twin nine-year-old boys who are neurodiverse, with one son almost non-verbal. Earmuffs are a crucial tool to help the boys regulate their mood and behaviour.
“Whenever I hear of someone that I know that has a child, or they know of a child that’s been diagnosed, I will always say ‘congratulations’ and ‘go out and buy yourself a pair of noise-cancelling headphones’.”
The boys, Henry and Tommy, received an autism diagnosis at age three. Shortly after, Cuming gave them earmuffs and “it was absolutely life changing”.
“It became very apparent that they had, like a lot of children, a very acute sensitivity to sounds due to them not being able to process sensory input the way a normal neurotypical child would.
“So noises for Tommy and Henry, we came to understand, felt louder, sharper, definitely more overwhelming for them.”
While headphones might typically give off signals that the wearer is closed to social interaction, they have the opposite effect for Cuming’s sons. The earmuffs Tommy and Henry use allow them to be in their classroom, around other children and complete swimming lessons.
“It meant that Tommy and Henry could start to go out and exist in the world and be happier.”
Cuming has also found that on windy days, the earmuffs block the sensation and noise of wind, which can add to a sensory overload for Tommy and Henry.
Headphones and earmuffs are “a viable clinical tool and intervention for individuals who are perhaps not doing so well in what we might call hostile acoustic environments,” says Dr Daniel Shepherd, a sensory psychologist at Auckland University of Technology.
Headphones have a dual function, blocking out noise while allowing those who are neurodivergent to control what sounds they hear, he says.
“They can adjust volumes and intensities and exactly what they’re listening to, and that in turn can also endow some predictability, which of course, with some neurodivergent conditions, is really integral to that idea of self-regulatory behaviour.”
Headphones can also allow some to use “stimming”, says Shepherd.
“It’s a sort of self-stimulatory behaviour that people on certain parts of the spectrum often do this is sort of about having repetitive sounds and noises…
“…those who have comorbidities such as ADHD, it may even be just a means to ward off boredom.”
Dane Dougan, the CEO of Autism NZ, says some of the organisation’s neurodivergent employees often wear headphones or earplugs in the office.
“They still want to have a bit of a feeling of what’s going on around them, but obviously the earplugs can filter out noise.”
The stigma that headphones are disrespectful is dissolving, says Dougan.
“Nowadays, I think it’s more just that understanding of other people [that headphones] have made it a lot more accessible for our community.”
