Here she can be such a contradiction. She does ask us to be quiet a lot. She cannot stand either me or Melanie singing, though we're not really any worse than anyone else. And sometimes she's just in a snit and can't even stand to hear us talk. Her play with her baby dolls frequently involves the whole household needing to adhere to a strict silence so her "baby" can "sleep", and breaches of this order can result in reactions equal to that of mothers of colicy infants in similar situations.
On the other hand, she makes so much noise herself that I sometimes fear I'll lose my mind! She has not really ever learned to whisper, and has none of the usual social inhibition that others naturally feel in quieter environments. She loves musical instruments and what she lacks in skill with them she makes up for in gusto and persistence.
It's one of the ironies of SPD that the very stimulation they cannot stand from the outside, they often can't get enough of if they create it themselves. It seems like they're experimenting with that type of stimuli in ways that feels safe because they are controlling it. It's also known that sensory disregulation often means that they don't experience the same stimuli the same way every time. What is too loud today may seem too soft to hear tomorrow. That's what's so stressful for these kids, their world is completely unpredictable!
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