Dachel Wake Up: Dollywood Acknowledges Autism
By Anne Dachel
June 30, 2016, ABC6 Knoxville: Dollywood adds calming room to help kids with sensory overloads
Families of children with autism now have a place to go at Dollywood for a quiet, relaxing environment if they experience sensory overload.
It is called a calming room, and it is the first of its kind at any theme park in the world. All the sights and sounds of a theme park can be a little too overwhelming for children with autism, so having a quiet place to go can help them and their family.
Visiting theme parks has never been an option for Heather Shuler and her family. Her son Hampton is autistic and affected by sensory overloads.
“It might mean nothing to us, but some pitch that he hears that we don’t hear and it just kind of like makes everything in their brain start spinning for themselves,” Shuler said.
Hampton can take a break inside the calming room and regroup.....
Dollywood partnered with Autism Speaks to make sure the room had exactly what was needed.
...While Dollywood is the first theme park in the world to have a calming room like this one, others are being designed right now at Legoland.
This is how a world in denial deals with the damage done to a generation of children: We pretend it's normal and acceptable. Having to accommodate more and more disabled kids with special needs is no cause for alarm.
Who ever heard of a "calming room" twenty-five years ago? What kids were there with "sensory overload"?
Today, in the 21st century, we are so aware and accommodating. We're adjusting quite well to what's happened to our precious, most vulnerable population.
Notice the phrase used by the news anchor: "Families of children with autism now have a place to go at Dollywood for a quiet, relaxing environment, if they're experiencing sensory overload."
Other anchor: "It is called a calming room, and it is the first of its kind at any theme park in the world."
We're told other theme parks will being following suit.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor.
British Autism Mother,
Yes, hyperacusis. Maybe no one today thinks it's worthy of investigation because according to the NHS "Hyperacusis... is quite common in children".
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/hyperacusis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Not at all surprising considering the dramatic rise in autism, ADHD etc. As Anne Dachel has so often said, these conditions have been normalised.
According to the CDC, "About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability", but it's not clear whether the measles virus, the encephalitis (or the treatment) is responsible for the hearing loss.
The main difference is that children with hyperacusis have normal hearing according to the standard hearing test, they are not deaf. It's not that they don't hear, it's how they hear and this is where I think Eileen Nicole Simon's research is important. It's not as if the experts don't know that hearing is a problem but it seems they choose to ignore it. The question is: Why?
Posted by: ATSC | July 03, 2016 at 07:11 PM
@ ATSC and others
What you/we are seeing is officially called "hyperacusis" in the UK (the last I heard). Yes, it's a horrible problem for many of our children. It's now twenty years since I entered a local builders' merchants to buy a pair of industrial ear defenders for our five/six year old ASD child. This purchase enabled our child to join in with some family activities.
My child still has particularly acute hearing and can pick out a chainsaw from nearly a mile away when ordinary mortals with them can hear nothing (confirmed by the third party present).
My theory - wait for it - is that the old natural measles used to have the occasional side-effect (incidence/figures anyone?) of causing partial or total hearing loss in one or both ears when the auditory nerve was damaged/burned out. These days we have children who have very sensitive hearing (hyperacusis). The auditory nerve is being inflamed by the live, attenuated measles virus but the virus is not being cleared by the body; the auditory nerve remains inflamed. Whether the single measles vaccine was responsible or whether it's an unexpected reaction to the combined MMR vaccine remains to be established.
I'll leave that thought with you while I hope I haven't exceeded the log-on time.
Posted by: British Autism Mother | July 02, 2016 at 05:04 AM
“It (sensory overloads) might mean nothing to us, but some pitch that he hears that we don’t hear and it just kind of like makes everything in their brain start spinning for themselves."
I think it's high time for researchers to start investigating the hearing problems that many of our children have. Why do they continuously focus on eye-gaze studies when so many of our children appear to be deaf, cover their ears at ordinary sounds, and have difficulties with receptive and expressive language?
Posted by: ATSC | July 01, 2016 at 10:12 PM
Why do I get sick to my stomach seeing a society taking such purportedly and I'm sure often actually well-meaning measures?
They are setting up "safe places" with snacks and coloring books, etc. at some of our institutions of "higher learning" so college students can get away from hearing something they believe they should be safe from (at least I think that's the stated reason). Maybe more accommodating of the thimerosal et Al generation?
The underlying poisoning that is also being accommodated should make everyone at the very least queasy, IMO...so you're probably right that its also accommodating a lot of denial.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | July 01, 2016 at 02:14 PM
Looks like they are having to explain all this child health crisis somehow. It's obvious they lied in saying autism rate is holding. The dam is bursting.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3669868/Chemicals-pollution-plastic-bottles-make-damage-brains-foetuses-growing-children-lowering-IQ.html
Posted by: for Bob | July 01, 2016 at 11:56 AM
Anne comments:
"This is how a world in denial deals with the damage done to a generation of children: We pretend it's normal and acceptable. Having to accommodate more and more disabled kids with special needs is no cause for alarm ........ Who ever heard of a "calming room" twenty-five years ago? What kids were there with "sensory overload"?
Well Anne, I think your observation is right on the mark.
When I was a 15 year old living in Brooklyn N.Y. .. I thought Dr. Jonas Salk's "polio vaccine" would be the greatest contribution to mankind that I would see in my life-time. Why? Because Polio was known to cause horrific consequences .. and .. the grainy images of those days .. showing kids in Iron Lungs .. had terrified every man, woman and child in the country. Those terrifying IMAGES were the driving force to find a "cure" for polio.
I can't really blame anyone .. for having NO IDEA how difficult the UNSEEN DAILY STRUGGLE of a child with autism .. their parents ... which requires 24-7 ... 7 days a week. I say UNSEEN because an "iron lung" is a far more terrifying .. VISIBLE image to see .. then a child with special needs playing in the friendly confines of a "calming room".
As long as the "powers that be" continue their carefully constructed PRETENSE .. that autism is "acceptable and normal" .. this HOLOCAUST will continue.
God forgive THEM .. because .. rest assured ... NOT ONLY WILL I NOT FORGIVE .. I WILL NEVER FORGET.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | July 01, 2016 at 06:41 AM