My hearing is acute like a cat or a dogs. Loud noise upset me. I can hear whispering across a room or footsteps walking to the front door before they are near the front door. When I was a kid it was used against me. A person would whisper insults at me causing me to fly in a rage and of course I was in trouble for it. I noticed many have bad hearing so is my acute hearing a fluke or do aspies have that too?

Yes it is an aspie thing. Many aspies have above normal hearing. They make it an aspie thing because it's so common even though I have met people off the spectrum who can also hear fluorescent lights. People with head injuries also have above normal hearing. Feral children have above normal hearing. My husband also has above normal hearing. My brother in law also has it.

I had hearing loss so my hearing isn't great compare to other aspies but other people say I have good hearing. Go figure. Maybe I am in between. Ear infections can damage your hearing and I had lot of them as a baby. I was hard of hearing later in life and needed speech therapy for it so I can hear the sounds correctly. I don't know if I would have aspie hearing if my parents had tubes put in my ears sooner before I went deaf.

Yes, I have this and it can be a blessing - but for the most part, it's a curse. This is part of the reason why I have my iPod on 24/7, to shut out any outside noise because the slightest thing can really bother me. I always have to wear earplugs when I go to bed, because I'm aware of slight noises outside, the noise of the pipes inside my house, etc. I can't sleep without my earplugs.
Loud noises upset me too - I am afraid of motorbikes, fireworks and balloons (I'm afraid of them bursting). I also hated party poppers (the real kind >_> ) when I was little.

I can't be in the same room as people when they are eating, because the noises drive me insane. The clinking noise of the cutlery on the plate, people chewing - urgh! I hate, hate, hate it.

This post was last modified: 03-01-2010 02:18 AM by Suedehead.

here too.

the whole whispers insults under breath thing too, house creaking kinda freaks me out sometimes, but I satisfy myself with a high powered flashlight, locked doors, and a handy baseball bat.  I almost pity someone trying to break in LOL!

I went to the doctor complaining about not hearing things, so he referred me to an ear nose throat guy.  Tested my ears.  Came back "well above average" -- to which I replied, "What?"

of course it's something between the ear and the understanding language part of the brain that's garbling the words somewhere.  Something I didn't know or understand back then.  
I used to think I was going deaf because I couldn't understand what people were telling me.

Me too.  

Earplugs at night, can hear fluorescent light bulbs, house creaking, central heating pipes warming up/cooling down.  I dislike people chatting at the movies during the film.  I find that distracting, so usually take a side seat than central.  

There was a thread running last autumn about increased light and colour sensitivity, and I def also have both of those.

A blessing and a curse.

it's an autistic thing to have extreme sensory experience. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Though it hasn't been officially acknowledged by the experts as being part of autism, which I find inexplicable, as it seems to be the common denominator across the spectrum. (Well. most of them anyway. Attwood's autism research centre has recently come out with a questionnaire specifically focused on this)

That sounds like central auditory processing disorder. I also am hard of hearing when it's noisy and people have asked me if I am deaf. I also have to stop what I am doing just to hear someone. They either need to shout or I need to stop.

Yes earplugs for sleeping and half of my waking hours, and my house is quiet.

Huh.  I may have compensated for this over the years.
I'll have to do an experiment somehow.

This post was last modified: 03-01-2010 10:33 AM by Thomas the Solitary.

I've worn ear plugs to bed because my husband snores. Now we don't sleep together (in the same bed). I still use ear plugs if I can hear him in the bedroom or out in the living room depending on where he is sleeping.

I rarely use ear plugs because I am not at places that are loud that overwhelm me. Screaming children get to me because they make me feel anxious when they make those sounds and I want to tell the parents to quiet down their child but I am afraid they will get mad at me and think I hate children. But luckily I don't see many of them.

I used to carry them in my bag when I was 18 because the freshmen be so loud in my class I got tired of standing out in the hall being uncomfortable. The floor was dirty to sit on so I started bringing ear plugs to school. I also used them for school assemblies. My arms get sore after while when I keep my ears covered.

I have neighbors next door who have kids and they are noisy when they play outside but fans blocked them out and I had ear plugs. Plus I used to shut the window. For some reason they annoyed me. And I want to have kids? I can see myself wearing ear plugs in my own apartment and telling my child to not make those high pitch sounds because "they hurt mommy's ears."

You don't need to have above normal hearing to be sensitive to sounds or annoyed by them. Snoring is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. It's that annoying even though it doesn't hurt my ears. But I can't ignore it. I have tried and all it did was made me feel more agitated and more annoyed and angry and it kept me awake. My ex who was aspie expected me to get used to his snoring in three weeks after we were together 24/7 but that didn't happen so I was "self centered." I should have told him about sounds he can't stand and tell him get used to those and see what he says to that and reacts. That might have helped him understood but he might have came up with an excuse. But I never thought of it then.

My son with AS was also dx with Auditory Processing Disorder, which is very similar to what you described. Some people say it is "dyslexia of hearing". He has above average hearing but difficulty processing correctly what he hears. There is info. on the web of course, but I also started an APD support group on Facebook. I can get you info. if you want it.

I thought it was more of an Aspie thing to have sensitivity to noise, rather than superhuman hearing...

lol.  what's with the all the ducks?
I see three groups (and probably more).
Which one?

Ahhh.  Makes perfect sense now.

Yes.  .  .