Lauren Edmunds, founder of a school for children with learning delays, explores how to reduce auditory and sensory sensitivity in children. Rather than simply removing the stimuli that cause distress, she explains how to build tolerance gradually through grounding techniques, body awareness and guided exposure.
She walks through practical tools, including the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method, and outlines how to read whether a child is coping or overwhelmed.
Drawing on Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset, Lauren argues that reducing difficulty or stimulus is not the answer. The real goal is not to make life easier, but to make the child stronger.
Transcription: Make the child stronger
Understanding the Auditory System
I want to talk a little bit about the auditory system.
It’s important for me to say upfront that I’m not an audiologist or a speech therapist, but I work in these environments and see how children experience sound and manage the noise around them.
When Sensory Input Becomes Overwhelming
Let’s take it a step back.
When something in your sensory space is so overwhelming that it shuts you down or triggers a very strong response, where you need to get away or fight your way out of it, we want to temporarily remove that intense response so we can work with you in that environment.
But if the response is not catastrophic, if it is uncomfortable, somewhat intolerable, or overwhelming, then what we want to do is understand where it is coming from and work with the child to build skills to overcome that sensitivity.
Supporting Without Overwhelming
This does not mean that if you are afraid of snakes, you throw someone into a bath of snakes.
We are not trying to trigger the nervous system.
It is about balance. Allowing exposure, building awareness, and helping the child understand what they are feeling.
How is the child feeling in that uncomfortable state? Where do they feel it? Can they become aware of what is happening around them?
You are the safe person with them. “I’ve got you. I’m right here.”
If they become overwhelmed, you remove them from the situation, because overwhelmed children do not learn. Their system is triggered, and there is no benefit to them being in that state.
Building Awareness and Regulation
When they can tolerate the discomfort, they begin to understand what is happening.
What is overwhelming? Where is the sound coming from? Where do they feel it in their body?
Are they breathing? Are they grounded? Do they want to run away or hide?
Can they become more aware and present in their responses to the sound?
Using Grounding Techniques
This does not happen all at once.
We build it slowly.
“Breathe. Breathe through the feeling. You are safe. You are right here with me.”
“Can you feel the ground? Can you feel the chair you are sitting on? Can you feel my hand? I’m holding your hand.”
“Look around. Can you see the tree? Can you see the birds?”
We use grounding techniques like the five, four, three, two, one method.
Five things you can see. Name them.
Four things you can touch.
Three things you can hear.
Two things you can smell.
One thing you can taste.
Now the child is focusing inward and becoming more aware of themselves rather than the external environment that is triggering them.
Identifying and Understanding Sounds
We then return to the sound.
“Can you hear the noise now?”
Another technique is to identify the sound.
“Who is it? What is it?”
“Oh, it’s a flapping curtain. Let’s look at it. I see it moving.”
“What does it sound like? It sounds like wings.”
“It’s flicking against the wall. I can hear the flicking.”
Then we shift attention.
“What is the next sound you can hear?”
“I can hear my brother laughing.”
“Where is he? Is the sound loud or soft? Is he happy? Is someone tickling him?”
We are helping the child move from fear and avoidance to understanding and awareness.
Keeping the Thinking Brain Engaged
This must always be done while observing whether the child is overwhelmed.
The moment they are overwhelmed, you remove them from the situation.
At that point, they are dysregulated. Their thinking brain is no longer accessible.
But if we can keep the thinking brain engaged, it becomes more powerful than the automatic response.
Balancing the Environment
In our environment, when children are auditorily or visually sensitive, we do reduce noise and visual stimulation.
But we do not remove it entirely, because that would deprive the child of the opportunity to learn to cope within that environment.
You cannot develop these skills if you are never exposed to the environment.
From Therapy to Real Life
Therapy is valuable, but it is often conducted in quiet, contained settings.
What I want to know is whether a child can take those skills and apply them in a real classroom where it is noisy and unpredictable.
We cannot control everything around them, but we can help them learn to control themselves.
Developing Coping Skills and Independence
This is where we begin to develop children’s coping and self-soothing skills, as well as their autonomy and agency.
We work towards reducing auditory sensitivity, visual sensitivity, and related processing challenges.
The Goal: Building Resilience
The goal is not to remove the stimulus that is causing distress.
The goal is to help the child deal with the stimulus so that it no longer causes distress.
The child develops ownership and agency over their response.
A Strength-Based Approach
This is a powerful approach to supporting children with sensory processing and learning difficulties.
We do not make the task easier. We make the child stronger.
As Carol Dweck speaks about in her work on growth mindset, we do not reduce the difficulty and call that success.
We keep the difficulty at an appropriate level and build the skills needed to meet it.
That is how we help children overcome their sensory and learning challenges.
Rather than making life easier, we make the child stronger.
