Study: Nearly 1 in 10 Children Hear Voices
A recent Dutch study has concluded that nearly 1 in 10 children aged seven to eight hear voices, but most aren’t bothered by them. About 3,800 children were surveyed and asked whether they heard one or more voices that only they themselves could hear.
Nine percent of the children answered yes. Only 15 percent of these children said the voices caused them serious suffering, and 19 percent said the voices interfered with their thinking. Boys and girls were equally likely to report hearing voices, but girls were more likely to report suffering and anxiety due to the voices.
I don’t quite know what to make of this information. This seems like a lot of kids. I’m a bit skeptical that there weren’t some children answering in the affirmative just for attention, or perhaps seeking approval. After all, we’ve seen many examples of the power of suggestion over people.
However, even if the numbers are reliable, experts say not to panic if your child hears voices. They conclude that most children suffering from auditory vocal hallucinations will not have any long-term effects from the condition. One of the study’s authors, Agna A. Bartels-Velthuis of University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands, said, “In most cases the voices will just disappear. I would advise them to reassure their child and to watch him or her closely.”
Perhaps these hallucinations account for some of the children who are attributed with “special gifts” such as psychic abilities? Many kids claim to have imaginary friends; but, perhaps, to some children, these friends are not really imaginary. Rather, they are voices inside their heads. It’s interesting research.
The team plans on following up in a few years to study how the auditory hallucinations evolve and what effect, if any, they have on the child’s behavior.
Chris Said,
February 8, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
I know I heard voices when I was younger, and sometimes I still hear them. I even once felt a hand on my face and voice call to me when I was eight years old (it was a bit traumatic, which is why I remember it). Of course I should mention that was the time I awakened after two weeks of a severe flu infection.
For many years I thought it was the hand of God rousting me up from certain death. Yes, it was a severe flu (Hong Kong, late 1960s), and according to my older brother my parents were very worried. (though I cannot get any detail, my mother died when I was young and my dad is completely clueless)
I have since learned, that there is a point in sleep where the brain creates spurious signals (hallucinations). It is the usually accompanied by sleep paralysis (Brian Dunning at Skeptoid has a few entries in his podcast about it, Steve Novella has mentioned that they happened to him when he was under stress in medical school). There is a point in REM sleep where things happen that seem so real, but are not. Most common for me is that I hear my name called, or the doorbell ring just before I wake up (and yes, a couple of times I have rapidly gotten up, thrown on bathrobe to see who was at the front door, only to see no one there).
Once in a great while I will hear a voice in my head when I am awake. Though it is often when I am very tired and stressed. So I don’t worry about it, and try to go to bed. Since I am older, my reasons for being tired now often have to do with hot flashes. sigh
Note: About four times in my life the sleep paralysis fails, and I have shouted and walked while asleep. The most dramatic was when early in my marriage when I had been reading Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series of books. It was about an hour after I had gone to bed and hubby was in the basement mucking about when I started to dream about the “thread.” My mind had the dangerous deadly “thread” falling from my actual bedroom ceiling down to me and I started to scream. Not only in my dream, but in reality. My husband woke me up because he thought I was being assaulted and had run up from the basement with a baseball bat.
I wonder if they should study to see how many of the children sleep walk (which is common in my family, we have lots of weird stories).