EXTREME fear in 5 1/2 yr old

My 5 year old son is extremely fearful of many things and it is progressively getting worse.  It started about a year ago when he didn't want to sleep with the lightoff anymore.  Then not in his bed, then not in the floor of his room.  Now he sleeps in the floor of his room with his head in the hallway (with the hall and bedroom lights on) just until I fall asleep and then he's in my room.  He says he's scared of the noises so we keep a radio on in his room and that helps some but not much.  He has always gone into a terrified panic when he hears loud noises. Even if he is just talking to us, he gets very upset and looses his concentration if even the slightest noise interrupts him (and with 2 younger sisters this is a common thing).  Now he is telling me he doesn't want to go to preschool (something he loves) on Tuesdays because they have music and the noise of them singing scares him.  He won't go to any room alone and now not even the bathroom without my husband or me with him.  He had a lot of hearing problems as a baby related to ear infections and had tubes inserted twice and I can't help but think about this.  His ped says fears are normal at this age and I don't want to sound disrespectful to him but I really feel this goes beyond normal fears.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Fears are very common at your son's age, but you must figure out a way to respond to them without encouraging a problematic pattern of interaction. If you continue to satisfy his requests for companionship (in bed, going into rooms, e.g.), you will only heighten the problem and postpone it's resolution. A combination of gentle support and firm limits is best.

Your son, in addition to the fears, may display some auditory defensiveness, and it would make sense to have him evaluated for sensory integration problems. An occupational therapist is the person who would conduct such an assessment.

[ProudKMom]

In addition to that, I wanted to mention that he has suffered no apparent trauma throughout his life.  We have a normal, active family and everyone else in the family is happy.  A couple of years ago, when my son was 3.5yr old, a social worker friend of ours wanted to test him on an intelligence scale and said he was off the charts in the same areas that an autistic child would be, but is clearly not autistic (child IQ testing is not something I particularly agree with or think is very accurate, but this was for the social worker's own studies).