Right now, as you sit in this room, it's very easy for you to focus on my voice and understand every word that I'm saying. For you, it's the only noise in the room. This is not how children with autism hear. They hear everything. It's that you may not even notice they hear and they hear them all at the same volume. So as you listen to and are able to focus on my voice, they hear the fan blowing. They hear doors closing. They hear the wait staff clearing tables. They hear the woman ten feet away, ramaging through her purse. They hear a fire truck outside. They hear people walking to their seats. They hear someone pouring a glass of water. They hear the wind. They hear a car alarm going off. They hear someone coughing. They hear a cell phone ringing. They hear a baby crying. If this is what your world sounded like every minute of every day, what would you do to cope? Would you run? Would you scream? Would you scream? Would you rock back and forth? Would you fight to get away? Would you jump up and down and flap your hands? Would you fight with cheap and tall black? Would you hit yourself in the head? What would you do to make it stop? What would you do to make it stop? Our kids are always doing the best that they can, always, to cope with the world that they simply don't hear the same way that we do.