Science

The ear is more complex organ than it seems at first sight and has multiple functions. In addition to the function of hearing, the ear is involved in balance and motor skills as well as at the energy input to the brain.

Balance depends on the vestibule, the part of the inner ear that informs the brain of the slightest body movement. The ear is therefore involved in controlling posture and maintaining balance. Through its action on the vestibule, the TOMATIS Method allows the body to regain verticality by repositioning the skeleton and to regultate the vestibule which plays a fundamental role in integrating the rhythms of both music and language due to its intricate network of connections to the brain.

Energy depends on brain sensory stimulation. The human ear ensures a function of “cortical arousal”. The ear needs to be stimulated to energize the brain and the body. Sound is necessary for our personal fulfilment and it has have been proven that high frequency sounds are very important to stimulate the neural network and subsequently regulate the overall activity level of the brain. High frequency stimulation made by the Solisten device will have a direct impact in the processes of attention, concentration, memory and more generally on the person’s openness to listening and to learning.

Listening, the ability to tune in one’s hearing, depends on auditory attention. When this ability is disturbed or not well developped this creates not only problems of discrimination, spatialization and auditory lateralization, but also a loss of the ability to isolate an auditory message from surrounding noise and attribute a meaning to it. In this situation, it can affect the child’s ability to pay attention when receiving a teacher’s instructions, to remember what has been said or simply to understand correctly the messagetransmitted. Good listening is also involved in the reading process it is the sounds that give meaning to the letters. A poor listening will have definitively a big impact on the learning ability of children.

Application

The Listening training program has been specifically designed for application in the school system. This program will intervene at the same time on the three functions of the ear in order to regulate auditory processing and allow children to increase their learning potential. This can be implemented for the whole class (school) as a preventive program or to assist children who are facing some learning difficulties. After a full Listening program improvements could be observed at different levels:

• better attention, understanding of instructions, memory
• better focus, stay on task, less distractibility and fatigability
• better oral communication skills and greater interest in talking
• greater participation in everyday life
• better fluency of reading
• greater self confidence

Dr Tomatis