Do people with AS have a better sense of hearing?

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I've wondered this.

Some do, yes.

Mine sucks compare to the autism community.

Not me - I'm deaf...

But...

I don't think we have better hearing anyway, simply less selective hearing.

An NT is able to filter out background noise in order to concentrate on something, like a conversation but to an aspie, the loudest noises take precedence - and everything is distracting.

Aspies have above normal hearing, same as people with head injuries and there are some NTs out there with good hearing too.


Maybe the reason why we have better hearing is because we don't ever learn to filter out the background noise and NT kids do so their hearing doesn't develope that far. People who are born blind or went blind at a very young age also develope acute hearing. They need to so they can find their way around. Their brains just take different pathways because of no vision.


I know the cure to getting rid of above normal hearing; play loud music and go to loud noisy places to damage your hearing and wa la you hear less sounds, no more of those buzzing flourescent lights.

I have horrible hearing.
I can get annoyed being supersensitive to tapping or repetitive noises, but when someone talks I can never concentrate on what they're saying and it takes me a lot longer than other people to understand what was just said.

^That sounds like Language Processing disorder or ADD^

I have seen no evidence that we have 'better' hearing than average. It does however, seem to sometimes be oddly selective. I do hear noises sometimes that others don't, but there seems to be a range (usually involving electronic devices) in which I can hear buzzing and whining noises that others don't pick up on, even when I point them out. Case in point, if you're old enough to remember vacuum tube televisions, they often emitted a hi-pitched squeal that was apparently slightly above the normal range of human hearing (like a dog whistle), that I could hear even when the volume was all the way down (it actually came from inside the set). I've only met one other person in my life who could hear that, and I suspect he may have been on the spectrum, too.

I have never seen any old working televisions but I am sure I'd be able to hear them because I can hear the muted TVs. The high pitch sound they make. But the shows and movies zone the sound out. Sometimes the sound is real loud it's annoying and my whole family can't hear it so I'm stuck with the sound. The sound is also at the end of the normal hearing range so that's why lot of people can't hear it and some can. I know one of my brothers has heard it before because I can remember him going in his room and turning off the TV even though the screen was dark because he heard the sound. But he probably damaged his hearing from loud music. He and my other brother played it loud in the playroom.

I used to think everyone could hear them until the mosquito tone came out and I read an article about it and I learned kids have better hearing and the older you get, the weaker your hearing gets so I started testing some peoples hearing by asking what they can hear and I asked about the TV sets and they didn't know what I was talking about and some knew. My mother didn't know what I was talking about and she said she never heard such sound from them so I'm assuming she never heard it in her childhood or when she was young.

I think alot of it is, not because they actually hear better, but because they focus more on their environment details and backround noises than other people. Some are also highly sensitive to certain sounds, which I guess, can be considered having better hearing in some cases.

When I was younger my mum took me to the doctor's because she thought I might have hearing problems. It turned out that I had above average hearing, and I still do. I can hear the TV noise (even from outside the room) and in the summer/autumn I can hear some kind of animal in my house (either mice or insects) making chirping noises. One night I asked my family if they could hear the same noise and they couldn't.

Also, I think that one time I heard a dog whistle, but it could possibly a false memory.

I am almost 62 and have had better than average hearing all my life. My mom said I screamed when I was little when sirens went by and I always cried at parades. I wear ear plugs a lot. Especially when I work with little kids who scream with shrill voices. Higher pitches hurt my brain. My husband teases me because I told him I heard a fat fly land on our table. In high school my science teacher hit a tuning fork and said none of us could hear it, but it hurt my ears. My left ear is more sensitive than the right.

I have always had excellent hearing, but some people think that I have hearing loss becasue I keep saying "what" when they are talking. I try to tell them that i heard them, it's just that I didn't understand them or that my brain registered it as gibberish. I had my hearing tested several times throughout my life,and all come out as excellent hearing. Even when i had a bad ear infection, and couldn't hear as well out of that ear, my test was normal in that ear.

I think in some this can be an attribute of sensory overload, but it's case by case. I have excellent hearing, until I try to focus on what people are saying in conversation. It seems like when I am blocking people out that I wish I could hear and understand, that I can acutely hear other noises specifically, as they become isolated in the processing. I can also totally block someone out who is talking to me directly, but it depends on what I am doing, and type of voice they are using. I don't respond well to low tones, soft pitch, and monotone inflection. Some people consider themselves sane for speaking in this manner, but it makes me feel mentally ill.

for myself ; hearing, yes...listening...no...

There are some convenience stores that broadcast a high-frequency tone that drives teenagers crazy, but old fa*ts can't pick up. It's a sort of client filter.

I wouldn't say it's "better," just more sensitive. I've always picked up on sounds that were quieter or a higher pitch, but they had a muffled quality to them that's sort of like turning the volume up too high on a set of speakers. It's like I hear everything half again as loud but not always as distinct.

It used to be intolerable, but it's gotten much better. When I was a child I would actually scream at the sound of the bell between classes or the echo made by a toilet in a public restroom; I can only imagine how my parents put up with this. Now it's gotten to the point where I can be around loud noises but they distract me to the point where I sometimes can't tell what people are saying.