Jan Coffey wrote:
> One does not have to be autistic to have a hightened sense for such things as
> flickering lights or shrill electronics. The average person can only see
> "flicker" below some frequency (can't remember what it si just now) and the
> above average person can only here between 20 Htz and 20k Htz. There are
> individuals who can see and here better, and they are often distracted in
> learning environemnts that contain such noise.
Absolutely. Some people are just more sensitive to certain types of
noises or lights than others, and most of them fall within a broad range
of "normal" for most other things. And some have sensitivities in those
areas (the flickering, anyway) that have nothing to do with autism, but
may have something to do with epilepsy, which is an entirely different
matter.
As an example as to how sensitivities like that can cause problems in
learning environments: I'm bothered by fingernails on the chalkboard.
I had a high school teacher who wasn't. She accidentally scratched the
chalkboard one day, and about half the class, including all the
musicians in the class, winced. She did it again deliberately, to the
amusement of those who *weren't* wincing. If she'd regularly scratched
the chalkboard, that would have made it a lot more difficult for some of
us to learn. And our reaction was within perfectly normal bounds.
Julia
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