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Many children 'hear voices'; most aren't bothered

Aunt Spiker

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Many children 'hear voices'; most aren't bothered - Yahoo! News

Nearly 1 in 10 seven- to eight-year-olds hears voices that aren't really there, according to a new study.

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."
 
What on earth sparked that study?

I'm interested to know why they originaly believed that hearing voices would be more common among urban children than rural children.
 
So they base it on the kid answering their question with yes.
Uh-huh. Because kids know what they're talking about.
 
haha - yep, apparently so.

Do they do studies on adults who believe everything children say?
 
So they base it on the kid answering their question with yes.
Uh-huh. Because kids know what they're talking about.

And won't ever lie to see what happens.
 
In some circles there has been a belief that children are in touch with the supernatural or paranormal forces, and the ability fades with age as parents and others teach them the voices or imaginary friends are not real.

Even babies often seem to looking at or responding to something we can't or as some say won't see or hear.

I believe only children spend a great deal of time with imaginary friends.

I also believe that children who grow up in a rural setting are more grounded in every aspect of life.

I would suggest that any study should include tests of ground water in the area for drugs that may have leached into the water supply. Adults are more likely to be able to deal with possible effects. I would extend these test to include drinking water that comes for lakes, reservoirs, and rivers.

Next I would look closely at the diets of each child who hear voices to see if there is a common thread there.

It is easy to take partial information and come up with a hypothesis but to reach any definitive result you have to explore every possibility.
 
I’m curious about how they asked the kids their questions.

In a manner of speaking, we all have voices in our heads that nobody else can hear…it’s just the regular chorus of wants, needs, desires and impulses. I wonder how many of those kids mistakenly said they “hear voices” because they lack the vocabulary to clarify that they meant “strong urges” and not “auditory hallucinations.” It’s much more likely that these kids just have strong urges to things like eat paste or pull Suzy’s hair braids, than it is for them to be hearing satanic voices that make them do stuff.
 
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Wait -- you're telling me it's not normal to hear voices??

:shock:
 
Who says the kids even understand the question? They could take the question literally, and think that it means have they ever listened to someone when nobody else was. Or they could be thinking about dreams or even auditory components of memory. The study is seriously flawed in taking data from subjects who don't fully comprehend what information they are supposed to be conveying.
 
Poppycock. I would LOVE to see the questions they asked these kids.
 
What makes them so sure that the voices are hallucinations?
 
Poppycock. I would LOVE to see the questions they asked these kids.
I'd love to see them, too.

I believe strongly in the supernatural and in children's perceptions, but if you ask a kid, "do you hear voices in your head," probably a fair number of them will think to themselves, of course, how else are you supposed to hear them? and answer in the affirmative.
 
I'd love to see them, too.

I believe strongly in the supernatural and in children's perceptions, but if you ask a kid, "do you hear voices in your head," probably a fair number of them will think to themselves, of course, how else are you supposed to hear them? and answer in the affirmative.


The question would be framed as "Do you ever hear a voice in your head that nobody else can?" or " ... if there's nobody else there?"

The OP article quote actually says this.
 
The question would be framed as "Do you ever hear a voice in your head that nobody else can?" or " ... if there's nobody else there?"

The OP article quote actually says this.
Oh. I suppose it would help if I had read it. :3oops:
 
I once heard voices telling me to get lots of tin foil and put it on my head. It turned out to be Alex Jones, along with some truthers, on the radio, so I just ignored it. :mrgreen:
 
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The question would be framed as "Do you ever hear a voice in your head that nobody else can?" or " ... if there's nobody else there?"

The OP article quote actually says this.

For a 7 or 8 year old with an active imagination, that question is poor and will not yield valid results.
 
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