My fearful 3 year old toddler

[Gfndez]

My 3 year old toddler has a problem with loud noises in school. Just the other day he became very frightened with the fire alarm in school when it went off because of a fire drill they had at his preschool. He still has not gotten over it and the teacher has explained to me that just going from one change of activity to another he becomes easily frightened. He has a normal environment at home and otherwise seems to be normal in everything else. What can I do to erase some of his fear with things  ?

[Gfndez]

Thank You so much for your help with this information.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Your son has plenty of company in fearing loud noises, especially fire alarms. Mifht he have some sound sensitivity or other sensory integration problem? Yes, he might, but based on the example of the fire alarm alone I would not conclude that he does. Relative to his difficulty with transitions, you can expect that this will improve over time as he adapts to the setting. He's only three, and it sounds like he derives a lot of support from the structure of his routine. That's a good thing. Apart from common-sense reassurance, I don't think you need to do anything in particular.