Dealing with irritating noises

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I have a self-contained life skills class in a high school, and one of my students is a 21-year old young man with autism (some of his paperwork says Aspergers, he says it's not that). He is extremely irritated by the sound of throat clearing, coughing, and sniffling-- and being in the thick of allergy season means he is having a tough time dealing with the rest of us in the classroom. I am at loss as to how to help him deal with the situation. He will be aging-out in December, and we are particularly concerned with how he will deal with this in a work situation. He has a job coach (not affiliated with the school) who just tells him, "People cough. They don't do it on purpose. You just have to get over it." My student is feeling understandably frustrated-- "If I knew how to get over it, I would!"

There are times when listening to an iPod or wearing earplugs would be appropriate, but there are other times when it would not; those are the times I am trying to help him with. Thank you!

I wish that I could help you more -- I was going to suggest the ear plugs, but you're correct, there are certain situations where that will not work or be appropriate.

My son who is currently in 8th grade has had issues with this sort of thing in the past. It was apparently a real problem in sixth grade, and there were certain kids in school who would purposely clear their throats or make throat noises just to annoy him. This year, he is over it -- it just doesn't bother him any more. I know that his hearing is a LOT more sensitive than a normal persons, and your student may have the same problem as well. What sounds like a minor throat clearing to us is a majorly irritating noise to your student. But if he's 21, then getting over it doesn't sound like much of an option, as he would have done so by now.

Over the years, the only thing that has worked for his son (and we only found this out by trial and error) was to take the very sound that was annoying him, and expose him to that sound MORE, rather than less. He used to be particularly bothered by buzzers at athletic events (his sister's volleyball games), but after going for four years, he got used to it eventually. As a young child, he couldn't stand the sound that the school bus brakes would make when the bus would come to a stop. He used to cover his ears with his hands. Now, he doesn't even notice it.

If there is some way to expose your student to the offending sound MORE, with his permission of course, that might be the only way to help him adjust.

Strikes me that if a student has issues with the inevitable noises and distractions that happen in a classroom, the simplest remedy would be to let him do his work somewhere else in privacy and comfort. Frankly I doubt that the physical presence of a pupil in a classroom has much bearing on the results they get....there are other ways of learning. Certainly, for me, classrooms hindered my education more than they helped it, but the powers that were didn't have the imagination to realise that. I even noticed that some students were failed on the grounds of poor attendance even though their answers in the exam were perfectly OK - surely if a student can pass the exam, that should be enough?

Shopping Malls and restaurants have become more of a challenge for me over the past year.

I take silicon ear plugs everywhere and they are a lifesaver

For myself, becoming accustomed to hearing buzzers at games and "getting used to" people coughing and hacking and slurping and whatever else are completely different things since so many people make their noises so carelessly or sloppily. Over the years I have trained myself to accept the fact people make noises, and I work at being tolerant of innocent or unavoidable noises people simply cannot live without making. However, there could be no number of beatings that would ever make me accustomed to the resulting pain any more than being highly exposed to people's indiscreet noises could make me "used to" them. So, try to help him learn to distinguish between unavoidable noises all people make and inconsiderate ones (such as unmuffled coughing or sneezing), then try to help him feel, contemplate and silently express compassion for thoughtless and inconsiderate people making obnoxious noises.

Hum quietly. That's what I do when breathing noises are irritating me.

I have a strange reaction to those noises, I
snort.

Sometimes loudly. Mostly not as loud.

I have no problem with it myself tho other
might wonder why I do it.

I have little or no control over it,
I snort when I hear those noises,
that is it.

I can sympathize. I used to get incredibly angry when hearing a sort of bass thumping sound (amongst others), no matter how far in the distance. I'd start to hyperventilate when that went on for more than a couple of minutes and had a few minor breakdowns because of that.

I'm using meditation to deal with these problems, specifically the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, constantly being aware of what's going on in your mind without blindly/instinctively reacting to it. Maybe this article can be of help:
How not to be a victim of your emotions
It was one of the first things I read about that topic and it steered me in the right direction.

I've just been reading about meditation, and so the suggestion of that as a possible way to cope with the noises seems to be a very good one.

I had an interesting experience with my son at a restaurant last night. It's usually a normally noisy restaurant, with music coming out of loudspeakers that I sometimes cannot hear due to the noise of other customers. My son can not only hear and distringuish each song coming over the loudspeaker, but he can easily hear and distinquish each song that comes out of the Guitar Hero game that is IN ANOTHER ROOM! That proves just how incredibly sensitive his hearing is, and also makes it understandable that everybody who has replied to this thread must feel -- how incredibly annoying those coughs and utterances in a classroom must be because overly sensitive hearing capabilities.

I can't stand the sound of parties, and there's one that's going on 2 floors below me. All I can hear, are those old people yacking their heads off.

Most of the sounds that irritate me the most come from motor vehicles. I can't stand motorcycles because they're too loud and I hate hearing car horns.

I also can't stand the sound of babies crying.