AUDITORY
THERAPIES
Sound stimulation listening training has
produced consistent dramatic breakthroughs in communication, language,
movement, socialization, academics, and eye contact for children with Autistic
Spectrum Disorder. Improvements can occur for those with foundational,
developmental, adequate, and proficient competencies.
A dozen different Auditory Therapies have
developed in the past two decades following on the heels of the Tomatis Method,
the originating Auditory Therapy first used in the US thirty years ago.
Each of the Auditory Therapies provides varying degrees of intensity, content,
length of training, type of assessment, mode and location of delivery, and
levels of success. Costs range from hundreds to thousands of dollars and
lengths range from weeks to months and years. All acknowledge their origins in
the pioneering work of Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis (1920 – 2001), a French ear nose
throat physician who discovered a systematized training method with technology as its base
that used sound as a therapeutic and educational intervention. Tomatis also
discovered the following:
- Hearing
is different from listening. Hearing is
the passive reception of sound, and listening is the active, motivated tuning
in and tuning out at choice. Good
listening results in well-organized auditory processing and vestibular control
of information.
- Listening
plays the fundamental role in processing all language information, and hence
all information learned through language.
- The
motivational and emotional need for communication begins with listening.
- One
role of the auditory system is to connect or relate self to self, others, and
environment.
- The
brain needs sound energy to enable the thinking processes and the development
of intelligences.
- Sound
stimulation technology can be used as a tool by professionals with different
backgrounds to assist people of all ages to improve their listening.
- Listening
is a skill that can be both lost and recovered.
- Poor
listening can begin at any age and for any number of reasons.
An increasing number of
professionals work with one or more of the now developed methods, machines,
software, and/or music discs that comprise the evolving Field of Sound
Stimulation Listening Training to provide Auditory Therapies. The professionals
are trained, certified / licensed to work with one or more listening
technologies for the purposes of correcting or enhancing the following:
- Neuro-developmental maturation (of speech, language, motor skills, etc.)
- Communication
skills (language-based, social, and vocational applications)
- Listening
to the body, movement in 3-D space, and motor control
- School
learning skills and abilities
- Attention and the organization of behavior
-
Social
relationships and increasing engagement
- Listening
with appropriate sound sensitivity level
- Neurological
rehabilitation for head injuries, strokes, etc.
Auditory Therapies train the ear to better attend to,
locate in space, distinguish between, and organize sounds of language, music,
and noise. They decrease distortion of this analysis so that incoming
information is not confusing and can establish a foundation for learning.
Changes in processing translate into improvements in academic performance, self
esteem, and emotional intelligence.
The objectives for
Auditory Therapy are based in improving at least the following functional
capabilities of the ear, which can be altered at any age:
- Ability
to select/distinguish differences and the direction of the differences between
sounds. Sequenced pure tones are
presented to both the right and left ears through air and bone conduction. This ability is linked to reading, letter and
number confusion, sequencing problems, self-confidence, music ability, memory,
and lack of access to clear information about one's past experiences. Regarding reading, poor sound distinction
makes it difficult to transform sounds into symbols and symbols into sounds and
to see relationships between words that have similar sounds. On one end of this ability spectrum is
someone with a partially or totally closed (non-distinguishing) ear, who cannot
discriminate between some or all sounds.
On the other end is someone who can distinguish between isolated
individual sounds.
- Ability
to consistently attend to incoming sounds more easily than one's own thoughts
and to tune out distractions. This
ability is related to problems with attention span, memory, behavior, following
instructions, relationships with others.
- Ability
to process information similarly with both ears. This relates to one's ease with comprehending
incoming information, sense of organization, and rhythm.
- Ability
to identify the source of direction where sounds originate. As tones are presented to the right and left
ears through air and bone conduction, the person must identify the origin of
the source of the sound. This ability is
related to problems with reading processing, sequencing, confusion of left and
right, and spatial organization.
- Ability
to process information so that highly energizing consonant and overtone sounds
are gradually more easily perceived than lower frequency sounds when developing
language, whereas lower frequency sounds are enhanced for motor development.
Ideal listening curves were established for good musical and linguistic ears by
Tomatis. This relates to ease of comprehending incoming information, one's
musical ear, voice quality and clarity, speech clarity, thought clarity,
creativity, level of energy, and sense of well being.
Individuals listen from 5 minutes
to two to two and one-half hours each day, depending on the specific
Auditory Therapy protocol, to unfiltered and/or filtered music and voice that
is either preprocessed on a disc or then processed through equipment or
software and delivered through earphones with air conduction or with bone and
air conduction. While a minimal program
typically occurs over several weeks, longer programs are recommended until full
potential is achieved. Auditory Therapy
basically trains or conditions the ear until the individual is capable of
retaining the benefits without the training.
The therapeutic sounds become the conduit for the education of one's ears
to their greatest potential.
Courtesy of Susan Varsames, MA Ed,
Holistic Learning Center, Eastchester, NY
(914) 793-9100, hlckids@aol.com,
www.hlcinfo.com
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