Aim: to treat a girl with specific noise phobias using systematic desensitisation
Method: a case study, details of noise phobia in a 9 year old girl called Lucy. Fear of sudden loud noise such as balloon poppers,guns and car backfiring and fireworks. Her parents gave consent and told what would happen, 1 session Lucy constructed a hierarchy of feared noises.Taught breathing and imagery to relax and had fear thermometer rate fear from 1-10. after 4 season learned to feel calm when noise presented.
Findings: 1st reluctant for balloon to burst, she cried. End of 4th signal balloon to be burst 10 meters away show mild anxiety, 5th could burst balloon herself and over next 3 sessions Lucy pull party popper if held by therapist. 10th and final Lucy's fear thermometer scores from 7 to 3 for balloon, 9-3 for party popper and 8-5 for cap gun.
Conclusions: it appears that noise phobias in children are amenable to systematic desensitisation.giving control to say when and where the noise were made and the use of inhibitors of fear response (relaxation).
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