History of Auditory Training
Watch Tutorial of
the Ear - How Sound Travels
Dr. Tomatis, a French ear, nose and throat specialist, spent his career studying the role of the
ear and its connection with the brain. His extensive research showed how good listening can positively influence our health and well-being, and
how poor listening can adversely affect it. He found that when
the ears don't perceive all the frequencies of
sound, the voice will not contain those frequencies
either.
But the ear, he believed, was responsible for more than just taking in sounds.
The ears relay all sensory information to the brain,
the ears control the muscles of the eyes. The ears
even charge our brains!
The foundation for
auditory training is patterned after the way a fetus hears sounds
in-utero. As the mother speaks, only the high frequencies in
her voice are rapidly channeled through her skeletal system
to the fetus. This is hearing through bone conduction. It is
the only way a fetus can hear its mother’s voice. The high
frequencies carry consonants such as (f/s/p/t/) and
consonant blends such as (sh/th/ch/). Being able to hear
these high-frequency sounds, in essence, wires the fetus for
language and prepares it to hear and attach meaning to
language outside the womb, when it is born.
If your child has a lot of
sensory issues and hypersensitivities to sound, our
bone conduction system will help to desensitize the
body and take them back to that earliest phase of
listening in the womb to lay down new neural connections.
Video: The
ear contains 3 parts: the outer, middle and inner ear. Sound
travels as “vibratory energy through the auditory canal to
the ear drum, vibrating through the middle ear bones. The
inner ear converts the vibratory energy into electrochemical
messages that are carried along the auditory nerve to the
brain where it is then perceived and interpreted.
Hearing vs Listening
Hearing and listening are totally different processes. Hearing is
a passive process just having the sounds taken in by the ear.
Listening, however, is an active process and involves the brain
to interpret and understand what is being heard. One can hear perfectly
(ie: have a normal hearing test by an audiologist) but still be a poor listener.
How Does Auditory Training Work
By exercising the tiny muscles in the ears using various frequencies of Mozart music, the ear muscles are forced to stretch and relax - that is how they are strengthened. Strengthening these muscles makes it possible for them to become better filters. When the ears filter sounds efficiently and effectively, the body can modulate itself better and not become over-stimulated or overwhelmed with unnecessary sounds.
Many children with autism and ADD/ADHD don't have effective filtering mechanisms and tend to take in every sound they hear
with their bones (they listen too much through bone
conduction!). As a result, they receive a barrage of un-filtered sounds that go straight to the brain, by-passing being processed by the
inner ear (ie: the middle ear muscles can't do their
job of filtering properly because they are not toned
up). These un-filtered sounds are often painful and/or distracting
(leaving a child holding his ears or render him
hyper chasing every sound he hears). These children are often frustrated and full of anxiety and aggression that can promote learning disabilities or shut-down mode because it is just too hard to function this way. Correcting for these listening disabilities creates a calmer, more organized listener who is able to learn, concentrate and be more on task.
