The dreaded vacuum cleaner. . . or not?

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I have two grandsons whom I believe have ASD (their mother is finally going to get them assessed). I understand that loud noises can be very overwhelming for some people. My oldest grandson used to freak out when we vacuumed; now he just spazzes & shrieks. At least he no longer seems to be afraid. The youngest grandson's reaction puzzles me, though. As soon as the vacuum is started, he flops down on the floor & proceeds to take a nap! I have a theory on this, but I would really like to know from someone with experience as to why he does this.

It sounds as if your grandchildren's responses show quite well the difference between a "melt-down" and a "shut-down". We tend to hear more about the very animated and disruptive "melt-down" kind of sensory overload; but my impression from various autism forums is that "shut-downs" are just as common, and we each have a tendency towards one or the other, though this can be very dependent on the situation (e.g. whether or not we can physically get away from the trigger.)

I definitely tend to experience shut-downs much more than melt-downs, to the point of becoming completely catatonic. I believe that it is a last resort defence mechanism, to relieve ourselves of the pain of the sensory stimulus by shutting down all or part of the brain so that we are no longer aware of the trigger. Shut-downs don't always have to be of the whole brain, either; I can sometimes navigate away from a trigger quite successfully "on autopilot" while at the same time, the speech and language parts of my brain cease to function, and with a very limited memory of the event (I have sometimes come around miles away from where I started.) Even when apparently catatonic, I can sometimes retain a vague awareness of my surroundings - including the odd sensation of not understanding speech but being aware that somehow I ought to be able to.

In fact, I believe that a "melt-down" might be just a very selective "shut-down"; one which shuts down everything except the primitive "fight or flight" response of the brain. The two experiences certainly feel like two different flavours of the same thing to me, and it is common that people report that their higher cognitive functions stop working during a melt-down. Needing to sleep afterwards is also common to both melt-downs and shut-downs. The transition to sleep is naturally less noticeable when starting from the catatonia of a complete shut-down, but the feeling that it has exhausted all of my energy is just the same. My shut-downs have indeed been mistaken for "taking a nap in the corner" many times in the past.

Oh wow! Thank you for your very enlightening post! What I had been thinking seems to be entirely wrong. I had thought that maybe the noise from the vacuum was enough to drown out all the other overwhelming stimuli & maybe he was able to relax. Now I feel terrible! I will refrain from vacuuming now while he is out here.
{{{hugs}}} Thank you!
(I think I am really gonna love this website & forum!)

You're welcome.

There's no need to feel bad about yourself; quite the opposite - I'm sure that many of us wish that more people would ask questions like yours so that we can help them to better understand autism. At the end of the day, I'm still only making a guess based on my experiences and what others have reported. It's certainly possible that an autistic person's different experience of their senses could make something that others find annoying feel very relaxing to them - for example, a loud clock ticking drives some people to distraction, but the predictability of the sound helps me to sleep.

You should watch this video clip:


Chaos theory. Minute, infinitesimal differences can lead to totally different outcomes. That's the essence of so-called "butterfly effect." As they say: "if you have met a child with autism, you've met a child with autism."

That all being said, vacuum cleaner was the starting point for my son. By using his interest in vacuum cleaner (he doesn't plug it in) while he was 2 years old, I taught him to read sentences, and taught him to follow instructions. All autistic children have peculiar interests, and those interests are the doors into their world.

What's my point? My point is: it's a waste of time to philosophize on the "why." I gave up on the "why" questions early on. Instead, I only asked the "what," as in "what can I teach my children from their interests?"

Thank you for the additional insight.
I do work with the oldest grandson, trying to teach him about things he is interested in. The younger one is more difficult to engage, but I keep trying.

I remember for a time I was kind of afraid of the vaccum and even as I got older would still be apprehensive about vacuuming. But there is a related incident, one time I was probably like 3 or 4 I think and my mom was vacuuming, I think I was trying to turn down the t.v but accidentally started turning it way up, my mom than wanted me to turn it down but she had to yell because everything was getting so loud. And I ended up freaking out having a panic attack and well yeah it made vacuums difficult for me for a long time.

As for your kid who flops down to nap, perhaps for some reason he finds the sound soothing so it helps him actually get to sleep for the nap. Like some people find the sound of rain is soothing to listen to for getting to sleep.

Rain on the canvas of a tent is just the best - it's also why I like bedrooms in the attic!

I was hoping that it was soothing for him, like maybe it was loud enough to overwhelm all the other stimuli intruding into his perception, but the overload makes more sense. I will just refrain from vacuuming while he is awake until a time when I can ask him. Thank you for your input!
I personally love the sound of a storm, as long at it is not a bad one. I don't like storms where there could be tornados; the energy that I seem to feel from those kinds of storms is just scary. Sorry, I can't really explain it better.

Our 5 year old still dislikes noisy household equipment.
It's can be the food processor and other kitchen gadgets. She disappears to her room or another one right away from the noise. Sometimes she even tells us the TV is loud and bring us the Remote to turn it down
We use[/url] We have mounted the canister in the basement -never had a concern with the noise level but perhaps that relates to sensitivity.

Last edited by B19 on 03 Dec 2019, 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.: spammer

This sounds familiar. My son has Aspergers. One of the first things I noticed when he was 2-3 years old was highly sensitive hearing (would be very disturbed by a vacuum cleaner) and only had very select tastes in toys (would only play with train toys only) he also has always been a picky eater.

The oldest grandson may be hypersensitive to sound. The youngest one may be soothed by vibration.

Some autistic children will hug vacuum cleaners. Vibration stimulates the muscles and joints and this, in turn, helps develop body awareness and coordination. The sound and feel of the motor often motivates individuals with autism or sensory processing disorders to grasp and manipulate.

Parents often use vibration as a relaxation tool for their young infants and small children. The vibrations from sitting in a running a car have a sleep inducing effect on babies. One website recommends placing the baby in a car seat and then placing the car seat on top of the washer or dryer during laundry operations because the vibration is very soothing for an infant. [But caution - make sure you firmly hold onto the car seat to prevent it from falling on the floor.] They also make vibrating infant mats that provide the same function.

I bought high fidelity earplugs (used by musicians) for going to action movies, which I find way too loud in theaters.,

In 1979 Omni Magazine interviewed Richard Feynman and titled the article “The Smartest Man In The World”.

Now, let us see what the "smartest man in the world" had to say about why magnets repel each other, when another journalist made that question.



In so many words, Feynman's answer was: "That's just the way it is."

It's not that Feynman didn't have more detailed answers. He did. After all, he essentially was the person (or one of the persons) that invented Quantum Electrodynamics and got a Nobel Prize for it.

Feynman's point was, at the journalist's level, the question cannot be answered. If the journalist were a college physics students, then Feynman would have provided a different answer. If the journalist were a physics PhD student, Feynman would have provided yet another answer. But at the journalist's level, the magnetic phenomenon cannot be explain by anything else. You just have to take it. Furthermore, you take it as your starting point, to explain other phenomena.

It's not about Feynman being arrogant nor anything like that. All humans have their limits. At some point, the answers will always be: "That's just the way it is." Anyone that has studied quantum mechanics knows that, we don't truly understand the world around us. We just have some tools to capture our ignorance.

- - -

So, questions about the "why" of autistic children's peculiar behaviors/responses, for the average people out there, are equally pointless. Instead of asking the "why" questions, you just need to take those behaviors/responses as the starting points, and ask "what" you can do with them.

The sad part is, most parents don't do a thing about their children's special interests. They instead go on wild goose chase after (a) "experts" out there, (b) diets/supplements/medications, (c) fringe therapies. The brains of these children go idle while their parents go crazy about chasing after all those treatments/cures. Worse, because these kids are approached incorrectly, they develop resentment, which translates into escapism. So many parents tell me: "... but my children are not interested in videos/drawings ... " Yeah right. You've cause so much damage already, and you still don't know you are the one that has caused all the damage. Kids are not born with escapism. Escapism is a red alarm: you have left some resentments unaddressed. I call them entry points in the "double-entry ledger" inside of the brains of these children. For non-verbal children, the one and only way of removing those resentments is through picture-aided talking (plus of course one-on-one outing to have fun). The refusal of parents to draw pictures is the ultimate root of all evils.

You could buy noise-canceling headphones for both boys that let them block out sounds (or listen to music without distractions). That may be helpful in situations where the loud noise is unavoidable.

For older kids, high-fidelity ear plugs are great. They don't muffle sounds like normal earplugs, but instead just lower the volume of all the sounds around you. I use them for church, where the music and microphones are too loud for me. They have the benefit of being discrete (unlike headphones), and allowing me to still clearly understand what is said. But they could be a choking hazard/a small child might push them into their ears too roughly, so probably need to save that idea for later.

I'm 55 and I do this.