Interview with Jennifer Gennari, Author of MUFFLED

MUFFLED written by Jennifer Gennari is a middle-grade novel about a young girl named Amelia who has a high sensitivity to noise and certain sounds. How has Amelia worked through this sensitivity? For the past few years, she has worn noise-canceling headphones. Amelia is starting fifth grade and her parents don't want her to wear the headphones anymore. Her father, who is empathetic to Amelia's struggle with noise gives her a pair of earmuffs. Amelia loves these earmuffs. They are soft and protect her from the sounds that make her anxious. On the contrary, the earmuffs also make it difficult to interact with peers and make her stand out. How can Amelia navigate friendships and learn to have the courage to take off her earmuffs? This book is a wonderful novel about friendship, courage, and learning to navigate different relationships at home and in school. It's also an excellent book to teach others about sensory processing disorders, overall sound sensitivity, and neurodiversity.

When reading this book, I could feel the emotions of Amelia and really empathize with her noise sensitivity. As a speech-language pathologist who works with neurodiverse children and adults with a variety of sensory processing disorders, I understand and see this struggle on a regular basis. For these children, certain sounds can be painful and extremely uncomfortable. To us, these sounds may just be loud or sometimes not even noticeable. The most important part of working with someone that has sound sensitivity is giving them the language to talk about it. For example, when I work with children that have sound sensitivity, I pay attention to their nonverbal cues and teach them the words "uncomfortable", "loud", "I don't like it" and then provide them a way to access a tool that will help them feel better such as a quiet space, headphones or a walk in the hallway.

To access free discussion questions and listen to the first chapter in her book read by the author, visit my website here.