Study Finds That Most Children ‘Hear Voices’
I’ve read cases in which young children often claim to hear disembodied voices or see “ghosts” when no one else around them can. I’ve also blogged about some personal experiences. (I wrote this way back)
The British Journal of Psychiatry released the some results of a study they have been conducting about children and these “ghostly voices”. Turns out that 1 in 10 children hear these voices. Most don’t develop any mental illness (schizophrenia or other serious illnesses) and grow up healthy.
So the question is this: Can we say that kids are affected by chemical reactions in their brain and form auditory hallucinations during their growth; or does this study open the doors to the possibility of children being more susceptible to ghostly voices?
I guess it would depend on your viewpoint in regards to the paranormal.
My opinion, I think a child’s intuition is a bit more clear when it comes to the psyche, therefore allowing them to see spirits. Yes. I do strongly believe in the possibility of ghosts.
Full Source: Yahoo
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nearly 1 in 10 seven- to eight-year-olds hears voices that aren’t really there, according to a new study.
But most children who hear voices don’t find them troubling or disruptive to their thinking, the study team found. “These voices in general have a limited impact in daily life,” Agna A. Bartels-Velthuis of University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands wrote in an email to Reuters Health.
And parents whose children hear voices should not be overly concerned, she added. “In most cases the voices will just disappear. I would advise them to reassure their child and to watch him or her closely.”
Up to 16 percent of mentally healthy children and teens may hear voices, the researchers note in the British Journal of Psychiatry. While hearing voices can signal a heightened risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in later life, they add, the “great majority” of young people who have these experiences never become mentally ill.
To further investigate how common these “auditory vocal hallucinations” are and whether they are associated with developmental and behavioral factors, the researchers looked at 3,870 Groningen primary schoolers. All were asked whether they had heard “one or more voices that only you and no one else could hear” in the past year.
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.
While past studies have linked complications in the womb or during early infancy with the likelihood of hearing voices, Bartels-Velthuis and her team found no such relationship. The researcher said that she and her colleagues had expected that hearing voices would be more common among urban children than among their rural peers, “but to our surprise, the contrary was the case in our sample. We have no explanation for this finding.”
Although urban children were less likely to hear voices, they were more troubled by them, the researchers found. They were more likely to report hearing several voices at once, voices speaking for a longer time, and voices that interfered with their thinking.
This greater severity suggests that the urban children who heard voices might be at higher risk of going on to develop psychotic illness, the researchers say.
Bartels-Velthuis and her team are now conducting a five-year follow-up study of the children to see how the voice-hearing plays out and what effect, if any, it has on behavior.
SOURCE: The British Journal of Psychiatry, January 2010.
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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When my friend was touring the Whaley House in San Diego, he was with his young nephew. When they got to the children’s room, his nephew heard children’s voices in the room but non of the adults hear a thing. There just might be something to children hearing ghost over an adult.
When I was around 5 I would hear voices when put to sleep in my parents bed during times when my bedroom was being painted, etc..
I would hear what sounded like several voices overlapping each other like everyone was talking at once and then they would steadily get louder and louder until it was like an “11″ on the dial. Then it would stop and I would go to sleep. It never seemed to scare me or even cause me to question. I guess I thought everyone heard this stuff.
Later in life I did a little research and discovered that many children are temporarily schizophrenic (theory). Most will grow out of it. Still later I could no longer find anything to back that up when I’d see something on a forum. That is until now. Maybe the schizophrenia theory was a bit much to claim in those early documents and this is the revised study. I knew I wasn’t crazy…Err, I mean crazy that the data didn’t exist crazy. Not the schizophrenia crazy….Wait, I mean….No, but yes I meant…Maybe delusional is a better word, maybe not.
You get the idea!
Any man who eats socks is ‘crazy’ in my book…
I can definately recall hearing voices when I was younger, but I can only recall twice, and the one time I will tell you I was sick (more than likely with the flu). The other time I heard what sounded like a witch cackling while I was sleeping in the bedroom with my brother. I looked at him and he was asleep. What was weird about this event (this was a while after my Shadow experiences), was I swore I felt someone poke me in the back of the shoulder a couple of times, then the cackling laugh. Of course I was scared as can be.
Nowadays I feel that poking sensation from time to time and realize it’s a muscle twitching, which I bet was the case back then. Was the cackling brought on by the suspected poking? Not that I had a fear of witches or anything, so why the witch cacking? Weirdness…
Gary, Not that I necessarily like the taste of socks. I’m just a man of my word. Now that I think of it I probably shouldn’t have used the ones off my feet. Oh well!
You know what, maybe you do have a fear of witches but it’s subconscious.
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My nephew has been talking a lot lately about ghosts. He is only 4 years old and has developmental problems (i.e. speech problems, etc) and hasn’t been able to communicate to us clearly what he is seeing or hearing. He’s talked about bus crashes and helicopter crashes and a dead body found on a train. He tells us colors, details, things that we can’t figure out how he knows about. We’re very open to the idea of paranormal activity, but we can’t get enough information to help him in any way. We used to think he had an imaginary friend, but these signs developed from the age of 16 months old, and have only progressed. We’ve seen him playing with his toys, turn around and yell at someone (that we cannot see) and then resume playing. The most disturbing is “Ike Ike sink”, which is the ship his father is stationed on. Is it precognition? Is it ghosts? We can’t seem to find any answers.
Cait,
If you haven’t yet I’d get him in for a full psychological examination from a reputable professional. It would seem that you’ve had the developmental issues diagnosed but when? Since he in now old enough to communicate his concerns it might be a good time to take him in to see someone that has experience with combination development and psychological.
I would definitely put paranormal on the bottom of the list as it likely will just complicate everyones life as it seems to be already. No, I’m not saying to bury it or deny anything, I’m just saying that mental issues are much more likely a source of such anomalies. Furthermore I’m sure he watches TV and while you probably try to monitor what he sees you can’t be completely sure of what he glimpses now and then while an adult is watching or out of the room.
I wish you all the best and pray that he grows into a wonderful young man.
Im having a situation with my soon to be 13 yr old son. A few months ago he tried to cut his wrist so I started him on theropy. On his first app he admited to hearing voices but not bad. So she put him on meds. She said she doesnt feels hes skits just bi-polar because they are not telling him to do things, just talking. However, the voices were coming in more than usual and seems to be more in my home than anywhere else. I should mention I have seen a showdow man once in my down stairs livingroom and my oldest son, 17, and youngest son, 9, hears things (not voices) in thier upstairs bedroom. Things are strange in this house. However, last night was horrible. My 12 yr old came down stairs and said the voices wont let him sleep. I then told him to tell them you need sleep and that you will talk to them tomorrow thinking that will ease him. 10 minutes later I hear him hollar and start crying loudly. He tells me now they are yelling at me. I am at lost. I have scheduled another app in 2 days. I just dont like the idea of drugging my son. My whole family have been known to be sinsitive to spiritual life. If this maybe a gift should I be the one to say no and drug it out of him? Or should I so this wont haunt him for years to come? Please help me…I dont know what else to do.
Amber, I would get a second opinion and don’t be afraid to walk out on a doctor/psychologist that is just pushing drugs. I just don’t see how a doctor could know immediately to put a kid on meds. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems a bit premature. Although drugs may be the answer you need to make sure the practitioner actually cares and does some extensive testing before coming to the conclusion of drug therapy. Frankly this doesn’t sound like Bi-Polar to me. I’ve had experience with a Bi-Polar child as well as several others at the camps, rehabs, ranches, etc…for such kids/teens. Again, I may be wrong but it can’t hurt to fully investigate his mental condition.
Maybe it would be a good idea to sit with him while he goes to sleep if he’ll let you. I realize he’s 12 but I’m sure he’s also very frightened and may welcome your presence. While this isn’t a long term answer it could help to settle the house down somewhat until you can get him in to see a doctor again.
My heart goes out to you and your family as sometimes it seems there are no answers but as long as you keep going things can get better. It’s not going to be a walk in the sunshine but know that God loves you and wants the best for us all.
I will pray for your family.
My daughter is 14 yrs old, almost 15 and has been hearing voices or a voice for years and it really scares her. She says its a mans voice and then from time to time she will hear children crying. Recently, she has taken to writting, which I think is a healthy way to express her anxiety. She writes about the shadow man and how scared she feels and how upsetting it is to hear the children cry. I wish I could help her..all my children are I guess “sensative” to paranormal activities…they can sense energy.. I don’t how else to explain it, just one of my daughters is what I call tormented by this Shadow man, her identical twin sister is not. my son who is 18 also senses things, but he states as he has grown up, he just blocks things out. I don’t want to think about medication, just resources that can help her understand that she is not alone.
Im 16 and my big sister claimed that she could see spirits and hear voices. She used to wake my mum up in the middle of the night because she could see people in her room. We used to live in this particular house where she and my dad could see numerous ghosts and spirits walking up and down the hallway. I think this study is accurate. I wasnt one of these kids but I have known other kids from school that can hear these voices.
I think it needs to be excluded if there is marijuana exposure when children hear voices.
Again, my advice would be to get a psychological evaluation. Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for mental illness to be passed genetically.
I am by no means saying that any of the children mentioned have a neurological/psychological issue. What I am saying is it’s vital to rule out the most common things first. Also, there is nothing shameful about having such an illness. This is serious business and in some cases if left unchecked there are illnesses such as schizophrenia/bipolar(some experts say they are the same illness)that can be very dangerous.
I have an open mind but I also think ruling things out is the best way to approach these types of situations.
When I was around the age of seven I used to hear these voices as well. They would start off as whispers of my name. Then they would gradually increase in volume until they were yelling at me from somewhere in the darkness of my room. Once I even began to see dark shapes form all around my bed. I remember the voices sounding of neither gender. . . . I didn’t remember this until a few months ago while speaking with my mother about trading rooms with my younger sister.