Songs in his head?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ds16, who definitely has concentration and executive function issues, is complaining that he can't focus on math without his IPod because he has "songs in his head" and he needs to drown them out.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  We're having some power struggles here and I'm trying to sort out what is b.s. (to put it bluntly) and what is something he really is struggling with.  

[Dandelion]

I haven't heard about the issue of songs in one's head specifically, but I have heard from many people that they or their kids focus better when listening to music.

 

As long as math is getting done and having access to the iPod doesn't appear to be a distraction, I'd let him use it.  My DS would be distracted by the iPod (he'd start surfing the web or be tempted to use the calculator), so this wouldn't work in our case. 

[I talk to the trees]

I cannot speak for your ds, but earworms are a very real phenomenon. There have been times when I have had the same 16 bars or so from one song playing in my head for several days. I wake up thinking about the song, and fall asleep with the same loop in my head. Sometimes it helps if I just play the song a few times and really listen to it. Perhaps that is what he is describing. Or perhaps he's pulling your leg. ;)

 

 

Edited for capitalization. Oops.

[Chris in VA]

Sometimes I get that way. I think it's related to my aspie/ocd stuff (I'm not ocd, but I do tend to perserverate on thoughts sometimes).

[Farrar]

Yes.  I've taught kids who really can't focus without a background noise because otherwise their brains are busy making their own.  My boys do this sometimes.  If there's no music, they start humming, then singing, then harmonizing.  It can get quite odd.  And by the time they're harmonizing, they're definitely not doing math.

 

That said, I've seen the music thing go really awry too.  It can be a negative distraction easily.

 

With the incredibly low cost of cheapie MP3 players these days, maybe the solution would be to have a special schoolwork set of headphones with all wordless music.  Then you can say, see, I'm listening to your needs (which may be a real need anyway, IMHO) but also have control over the device and the music itself to help keep it from being a distraction.

[MomatHWTK]

I almost always had either music playing or the TV turned on with the sound very low when I was working.  Basically, my ADHD brain is going to want to do more than one thing at a time, so I have to give it something or it will keep searching.  I think I would go stir crazy trying to focus in a silent room.

[Aurelia]

He is probably telling the truth. I nearly always have songs going through my head, and there have been times where it's been difficult to focus on other things because I've got an earworm that won't quit. That said, I've gotten better at blocking it out through the years, but sometimes I just have to turn on some music to drown it out. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I finally let him bring his IPod to the table.  

[myfunnybunch]

My ds, who also has attention issues, will sometimes come out of his room at night complaining that he can't sleep because he's got a song in his head and it won't stop. It sounds to me like a hyper-version of an earworm. He usually deals with it by playing a couple of his pieces on the piano, until it goes away and he can go to sleep. Listening to music also helps. (Interestingly enough, he has 2-3 times started crying because the song was so strong, and ended up with a migraine within an hour.)

 

So I'd lean toward it being real, maybe especially for a kid with concentration and executive function issues.

 

That said, the iPod might not be the only solution. I've found that my whole day is much freer of clicks and humming and boop-boop-boop-boop (you know, aimless boy noise) if there's quiet classical music in the background, and it seems to cut down on the earworms too.

 

Cat

[Scarlett]

My ds almost 14 asks for music while he does math too.  How can you do complicated math with music playing?  I let him because his results can't be argued with....

 

But btw, I have music in my head almost all of the time.

[DragonFaerie]

Yep.  I often have music in my head.  I call it my soundtrack.  :D

 

ETA:  Typing this post changed my song to Bon Jovi:  "First time I heard the music/ I thought it was my own/ I could feel it in my heartbeat/ I could feel it in my bones."

[Mrs Mungo]

I agree that it is easier for ADD/ADHD people to stay focused when they can keep part of their brain busy with another task like listening to music. Other things help too like chewing gum or handling thinking putty.

[73349]

Yup, I have something from an opera going on right now. Fortunately just the instrumental part. I don't even like opera.

 

For me, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons is a cure for both the external (fire truck, cat purring, whatever) and internal auditory distractions. It didn't work as well until I'd listened to it several times and it was all familiar.

[AmandaVT]

I almost always had either music playing or the TV turned on with the sound very low when I was working.  Basically, my ADHD brain is going to want to do more than one thing at a time, so I have to give it something or it will keep searching.  I think I would go stir crazy trying to focus in a silent room.

 

This. Except without the ADHD here. I've always had to have background noise of some kind when reading or doing homework or concentrating. Growing up, I would always have music playing during homework time or I could not concentrate. Now I'll either play music or have the weather channel on in the background or something like that.

[Jean in Newcastle]

He tends to listen to power metal while doing math.  It wasn't the fact that he likes to listen to music.  It was the fact that I was also trying to talk and explain something to him at the same time!  

[Amy in NH]

Sure.  Haven't you ever had a song stuck in your head?

 

DS16 used to hum little songs to himself all day long when he was younger.  They were just made up songs running through his head. 

[laundrycrisis]

I have songs in my head, sometimes in great detail, and they are a huge distraction because I feel an almost compulsive need to focus on them, and think about either playing them or singing them, or just wanting to "play" them in my head from start to finish, flawlessly, from memory. 

 

I love music, but when this happens at an inconvenient time, it's a problem. 

[Amy in NH]

You might try playing quiet classical music in the background at your home.  It distracts that easily-distracted part of the brain so that you can focus better.

[Dory]

I used to think I was nuts because I had a constant stream of music in my head and no one else in my family did. I have now learned to guage my emotions by what style of song my head is making up. If it starts to sound nonsensical and like someone is smashing a Bartok piece with Flight of the Bumblebees, well I know it's time for me to take a break and calm down a little. When playing the piano I used to put an earbud in one ear because it was like that song would 'cancel out' the other in some way and then I could focus on the song I was trying to play. I never studied without classical music playing for the same reason.

 

I actually learned to name emotions by putting names to the song styles. When doing something with someone, if they said they felt pretty happy about it, then I would put that name on the music in my head. Unfortunately that means that if there are emotions that no one around me has verbally named, I struggle to know how to say what they are to anyone else. Perhaps I am nuts.

[planner]

Just today my daughter complained to me that she didn't do well on her XtraMath because she had too many songs in her head and she couldn't concentrate.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Oh, and I have gone through my life having music playing in my head.  Not an ear-worm situation...just sort of a soundtrack.  :0)

Yes, what he describes is not an ear-worm.