ObjectiveMisophonia is an unusually strong aversion to a specific class of sounds – most often human bodily sounds such as chewing, crunching, or breathing. A number of studies have emerged in the last 10 years examining misophonia in adults, but little is known about the impact of the condition in children. Here we set out to investigate the well-being profile of children with misophonia, while also presenting the first validated misophonia questionnaire for children.Materials and MethodsWe screened 142 children (10–14 years; Mean 11.72 SD 1.12; 65 female, 77 male) using our novel diagnostic [the Sussex Misophonia Scale for Adolescents (SMS-Adolescent)]. This allowed us to identify a group of children already manifesting misophonia at that age – the first population-sampled cohort of child misophonics examined to date. Children and their parents also completed measures of well-being (for convergent validation of our SMS-Adolescent) and creative self-construct (for discriminant validation).ResultsData show that children with misophonia have significantly elevated levels of anxiety and obsessive compulsive traits. Additionally children with misophonia have significantly poorer life-satisfaction, and health-related quality of life. As predicted, they show no differences in creative self-construct.ConclusionTogether our data suggest the first evidence in population sampling of poorer life outcomes for children with misophonia, and provide preliminary convergent and discriminant validation for our novel misophonia instrument. Our data suggest a need for greater recognition and therapeutic outlets for adolescents with misophonia.

Misophonia is an unusually strong aversion to a specific class of sounds -- most often human bodily sounds such as chewing, crunching, or breathing. A number of questionnaires exist to diagnose misophonia, but few have been validated, and fewer still show any factor structure within the symptoms of the condition. Here we present a novel tool, the Sussex Misophonia Scale, which represents all key theme from previous questionnaires within a single easy-to-use measure. We validated our questionnaire in a sample of 501 adults, including people with and without misophonia. Our exploratory factor analyses revealed five factors tied to misophonia (Feelings/ Isolation; Life consequences; Intersocial reactivity; Avoidance/ Repulsion; Pain). Receiver Operator Characteristic showed our questionnaire to be an excellent measure for identifying people with misophonia, and we present it here with its diagnostic threshold for researchers and clinicians.

Correspondence to L.Rinaldi@sussex.ac.uk PERSONALITY OF CHILD SYNAESTHETESOpenness to Experience, a personality trait linked to intelligence and creativity. Both synaesthesia subtypes showed this feature, supporting previous research in adults (1-3). We additionally found low Extraversion in grapheme-colour synaesthetes and high Conscientiousness in sequencepersonality synaesthetes. We discuss our results with reference to earlier recruitment issues, and as to how perceptual differences such as synaesthesia might link to trait-differences in personality.

Julia (2020) Do the colors of educational number-tools improve children's mathematics and numerosity? Child Development, 91 (4). e799-e813.

Misophonia is an unusually strong aversion to everyday sounds such as chewing, crunching, or breathing. Previous studies have suggested that rates of autism might be elevated in misophonia, and here we examine this claim in detail. We present a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, and two empirical studies examining children and adults with misophonia. We tested 142 children and 379 adults for traits associated with autism (i.e., attention-to-detail, attention-switching, social processing, communication, imagination, emotion regulation, and sensory sensitivity across multiple domains). Our data show that autistic traits are indeed elevated in misophonics compared to controls. We discuss our findings in relation to models of the interface between autism, sensory sensitivities, and the specific features of misophonia.