Therapies
Albert Tomatis - Listening & Learning - Theories - Research - Sound Therapy
The Theories Behind Sound Therapy
Adapted from the web site www.tomatis.com
Sensory Integration
According to one of the leading pioneers of the concept of sensory integration, Dr. Jean Ayres states that all of our senses must work together. Our senses of touch, smell, taste, sight and sound, as well as our physical movement and body awareness must work in harmony in order to act and react within our environment in a functional manner. The senses send gathered information to the brain where it is interpreted and organized. This process is called sensory integration. When one of our senses doesn’t function properly, our learning ability and quality of living are diminished.
For some children, sensory integration develops effortlessly during the course of ordinary play and childhood activities. For others, sensory integration develops in a disordered manner, causing a number of problems in learning, development, or behavior.
The Vestibular System
The vestibular system is comprised of several structures within the inner ear. When the head tilts in any direction, fluid moves small hairs within the structures and their movement lets us know our position in relation to the earth’s gravity. The vestibular system gives us our perception of speed and movement. It also controls balance, coordination and muscle tone. Our ears control all of the muscles of our bodies, including the muscles of our eyes. Our ears also control the quality of our speech. We cannot create a sound that we cannot clearly hear.
Dr. Ayres concludes that problems arise when the vestibule does not function well. In her book, Sensory Integration and the Child, Dr. Ayres writes: “Well-modulated vestibular activity is very important for maintaining a calm, alert state. The vestibular system also keeps the level of arousal of the nervous system balanced. An under-active vestibular system contributes to hyperactivity and distractibility because of the lack of its modulating influence.”
The vestibule transforms body movements into energy. About 50% of the energy that the brain needs to function optimally comes from body sensations, which are channeled through the vestibule.
Importance of Right-Ear Dominance
Dr. Alfred Tomatis formulated the theories behind sound therapy and the initial techniques for ear stabilization. His work has shown that we each have a dominant ear, either right or left. The advantage in being right-ear dominant is that the right ear processes incoming auditory information faster than the left. The right ear processes information faster because it sends the information directly to the left-brain, which specializes in processing language. Left-ear dominant people send information to the right brain, which cannot process language. Information thus has to be rerouted to the left-brain via the Corpus Callosum. This is a much longer pathway creating a delay in information. Not only is the information late, it is also incomplete. In the transfer from the right-brain to the left, some of the higher frequencies are lost. These are the frequencies that are key to distinguishing similar sounds such as “B” and “P.”
High frequencies are also food for the brain. They energize it, stimulate it, make it alert, and enable it to focus and remember. On the other hand, low frequency sounds tend to quickly wear us out. Left-ear dominant people do not have as much access to the high frequencies, while they are often bombarded by the low frequencies.
Our Bodies “Hear”
We hear with more than just our ears. The bones of our body and our skin tissue are also sensitive to sound vibrations. When we hear a gunshot, a loud screech, or a door slamming, our bodies shudder instinctively because these sounds arrive in the inner ear without any warning signals.
Even the skin responds to sound vibrations. A simple touch of skin receptors, according to Tomatis, is enough to make the muscles of the hammer and stirrup within the middle ear react as if they were responding to a sound. We may feel touched and caressed when we listen to a beautiful voice. The entire body may vibrate.
Sounds traveling through bone resonate throughout the inner space of our bodies and echo throughout our organs. Bone vibration is key to developing a better perception of the body and the basis for the concept of self to develop. The simple fact of speaking creates body vibrations, but we are usually unaware and undisturbed by it. Indeed, a deaf person can be trained to “hear” through the skin with the aid of special transducers.
In his book on opera singing, (L’Oreille et la Voix, no), Tomatis explains in detail how singers must be able to control their bodies down to the smallest sensation in order to produce a sound of perfect quality. Singers, he insists, need to utilize their bodies as if they were instruments.
Hearing through the ear is how we listen to others. “Bone conduction” is how we listen to ourselves. It is by listening to our own voice that we progressively learned to focus on the sounds we were producing. Self-listening teaches us to emit sounds, to organize them into words and sentences, projecting them to the ears of others.
Learning difficulties
People with various types of learning and behavioral disorders often hear primarily with their bodies instead of their ears. That is one of the reasons they are often reactive. They do not have the ability to focus and tune out extraneous background noise.
People who have trouble discriminating sounds often have a parallel difficulty in thinking logically. They are unable to organize their thoughts into coherent, logical and meaningful expression. Inasmuch as communication rests on our ability to quickly process language and other cues, interacting with others is dependent on effective listening. It is also hard to contain emotions if you cannot master the language that expresses them.
Typically, people with listening problems get lost easily, even if directions have been repeated several times or written down. Right and left are sometimes confused. The result is often a poor perception of the body. People with these types of problems cannot trust themselves because they cannot utilize the information provided by their senses. Something feels as if it is off in their body. What is off is orientation in space.
Learning to listen is progressive and parallels the developmental process. The way that we listen shapes our core personality. Language allows us to achieve control within ourselves. Words give us the ability to manipulate the events of our lives so that we can plan, revise and improve our intentions before putting them into action. Words help us retrieve memories and organize our thoughts, as well as name, analyze and understand our daily experience.
The Listening Program can go a long way to help people with a variety of learning and emotional problems. It can help by:
Ø Regulating the vestibule function
Ø Changing left ear dominance to right ear
Ø Training the ears to become the main entrance to sounds
