Could you endure noise more as a child?

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I just don't get why I became so much more obviously sensitive to sound as soon as I were in my mid-teens. I mean, spending more than a decade around people who frantically shout and bang doors must have something to do with it... but *how* could I withstand that, and I can barely stand someone outside of my window just normally talking right now?

It's to do with concentration - I can't currently watch a film if the odds are that one of my neighbours will end up either audibly closing a door or even coughing, since, if that happens while watching a film I'll end up having to rewind, and I'd rather not watch anything than to do that as I always end up not enjoying the remainder. In the past I was able to play video games while someone was in the same room while talking on a phone (as I remember).

I was the same way. It set in around the time I was 12....

For me it got worse too. My family has a habit of shouting, banging doors, clanking dishes, etc. When I moved out I gradually grew more sensitive to virtually every kind of noises. Some of them due to being new to me, as I didn't have enough time to get accustomed with them. Now coughing in the adjacent apartment or hissing tubes in the above one can really annoy me, especially when I try to fall asleep, while overall I wouldn't consider my apartment noisy.

Ditto. I never liked noise, but now I actually cover my ears, like I did as an infant. When I was very small, I had tantrums over noise, but it started to die down as I got older. I think I was least noise-sensitive around the age of six or seven; after that it built steadily again, so that now I'm probably about as sensitive as I was when I was six months old. I can be overwhelmed by a fire alarm, and often impulsively cover my ears when in the presence of loud noise. Long-term noise inevitably cause a headache.

I think how much I am bothered by noise depends on my mood more than anything else and have not observed a difference. Loud noises are worse when I am in a bad mood although this can create a feedback effect.

There were 2 noises I couldn't tolerate as a child - my fathers' alarm clock (they shut their bedroom door and I would still hear it go off at 4.30am) and fire alarms.

Yeah my sensory overload is SO much worse when I'm in a bad mood...like when I'm irritable from PMS...like this week.........

As for comparing my noise sensitivity to when I was a kid there are certain noises I didn't have to endure as a child....I didn't go on the bus as a kid and now I get bothered by the screechy noise buses make when they stop and get sensory overload on crowded buses. Also in lecture I get sensory overload. I don't remember getting it in class as a kid but then I would "hum and make odd noises in class" so I think I just blocked it out and didn't pay attention. Now that I try hard in school and pay attention I get overload.

i could not tolerate the noise of a vacuum cleaner as a child, my 6th grade teacher embarrassed me in front of the class when he told 'em all that my mother told him this. i still can't handle the noise of power tools.

Mine did too...mostly with particular things, but I have a hard time identifying which sounds and noises are annoying and which are not. I've grown suuuuper annoyed by girl's voices...like pop star singer style voices. And also I've grown a little bit annoyed by my younger sister's voice. I don't know why.

Yes, it got worse when I was about 14. Great to know I'm not alone in that.

I noticed when I was 12 that the sound of other people chewing started to drive me insane, no memory of this occurring at an earlier age. I absolutely cannot stand loud noises anymore, and bright lights are starting to get to me, so there have definately been some changes for me as I've aged.

yes omg i thought i was the only one when iwas little i didnt have all these sound sensitivies infact i was pretty much a sensory seeker always hyper and stuff (which led to my diagnosis of ADHD) i sometimes wonder even if aspergers was as well known as it is now when i was little if i would even have been diagnosed alot of my aspie symptoms became much more apparent as i started puberty

I don't believe so. I can't really recall a time when it was different.

No. I can remember as a small child when my dad was driving the 1964 Chevy that he would turn on the radio "to get some scores" and the background noise of the baseball or football game would drive me crazy more than a screech would. I would try to tell him but could not explain it and so he kept it on trying to get some scores.

So parents, please, if your child on the spectrum cringes when you listen to a baseball or football game because of the background noise, please find some other way to get the score. Your child will appreciate it!

(I think there's a difference, though, between hating a particular sound - a scratch on a whiteboard (which I don't, even though most people do) even though it's not very loud - and being unable to withstand the loudness itself. I lose concentration while someone talks in the background not because they're talking too loud, and technically not due to hating people talking, either... as in, I wouldn't mind it if I was just doing something that didn't require concentration.)

Noises frightened me as a child. Some noises seemed to be amplified in my head and I would hide and cover my ears, but I outgrew it. Since then I just have an extreme dislike of loud noises. I avoid places where there is loud music and such. I have good hearing now, maybe because of avoiding noisy places and loud music all my life. I can hear conversations that I was not meant to hear, and that's not always pleasant. Sometimes when I am in a place like a crowded shopping center, If I keep very still, I can hear all sorts of noises and very very many people talking all at once and it is such a surreal experience.