Very interesting story:
Every Thursday night, after Northeast Indiana Public Radio has shut down for the day, after the lights are out and the employees have gone home, after the hustle has calmed and the bustle has quieted, Joshua Stephenson arrives.
Joshua is a volunteer host at the radio station, and he records his classical music show – “Josh’s Corner,” which airs at 6 p.m. Saturdays – with his mother, Annette. He is 16 years old, and he started to listen to classical music when he was 6. As a child, large rooms with a lot of noise affected him more than other people. Loud sounds and crowds would cause Joshua to hold his ears, as if he were in pain, says his father, Scott Stephenson.
Sound sensitivity is a common symptom of autism, and Joshua, of Convoy, Ohio, has Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism that affects his ability to communicate and interact socially. To treat this sensitivity, Joshua’s parents turned to audio therapy: Using Bose headphones that emphasized the high and low pitches in song, Joshua started to build a tolerance to loud noises through classical music.
