Tomatis® Method Listening Therapy

Neurosensory Sound Training to Improve Brain Function

The brain is plastic — an adaptable organ that changes in response to experience and stimuli. That means we can use educational therapy to facilitate neuroplastic change in motor, linguistic, emotional, and cognitive function.

The Tomatis neurosensory program uses auditory stimulation to train the brain to process and interpret sound. This can help people with special needs and learning disabilities — including attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and autism — improve their listening, comprehension, speech, memory, and attention.

Forum Health uses the Tomatis method with Forbrain® bone-conduction headphones. This brain-training headset transmits sound clearly, enhances specific frequencies, and provides constant auditory feedback. The audio-vocal loop helps users self-monitor and correct their speech, language, and vocal quality.

Areas of application for the Tomatis method:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Attention and ability to stay on task — including attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as follow-through and motivation
• Brain injury related to sports, concussions, or stroke
• Memory and listening comprehension
• Creativity and logic
• Coordination, including fine and gross motor skills
• Emotional regulation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, confidence, mental fatigue, and brain fog
• Pervasive developmental disorders (PDD)
• Learning, including reading comprehension and writing, new languages, dyslexia, math, and music
• Speech, language, and social communication, including auditory processing, expressive and receptive speech, and language delays
  
  

How the Tomatis Method Can Change the Lives of People With Special Needs & Learning Disabilities

Promoting the Ear-Brain Connection

Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is the passive collection of sound. But listening is the active process of understanding and integrating stimuli from the ear. Hearing without listening would be like clearly visualizing words — without understanding what they mean.

The auditory nerve is key to listening, helping transmit motor and auditory information to the auditory cortex of the brain. This intricate region influences:

• Speech and language
• Motor control and coordination
• Executive functioning
• Emotional regulation
• Memory and attention
• Sensory processing
• Vagus nerve stimulation

The Tomatis method promotes connectivity between the right and left hemispheres, enhancing creativity and logic.

Auditory Stimulation

The Tomatis method uses auditory stimulation with targeted frequencies; air and bone conduction; and electronic Gating™ (unpredictable alterations in frequency and volume that keep the brain in a state of surprise, promoting attention to stimuli). Individualized parameters are applied to music and voice, stimulating the brain to improve listening quality.

When listening to and comprehending sound, your inner ear uses both air and bone conduction. With air conduction, a sound is collected and funneled through the external auditory canal. In bone conduction, sound travels to the inner ear through the bones of the skull and vibrates the cochlear.

Sound travels through bone faster than air. Because a sound reaches your ears first through bone conduction, the brain can prepare to receive the sound through air conduction. To understand bone conduction, try speaking with your ears plugged and unplugged. You can hear your voice just as well both ways. That’s because the sound is being transmitted through bone conduction.

The Tomatis method also uses the TalksUp® device. TalksUp is a portable sensory stimulation device that reproduces the essential parameters of the Tomatis method. It contains programs adapted to most listening-related disorders. Forum Health can help you choose the one that will best meet your needs.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that affects social communication and interaction. Symptoms include restricted and repetitive behaviors. These can affect daily routines, relationships, and the ability to express wants and needs.

Early identification and intervention are key to receiving the greatest benefits from treatment. But it’s never too late to improve quality of life. Forum Health believes children and adults with autism spectrum disorder deserve to live to their fullest potential.

Autism appears to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. That means that — beyond neuroplastic and conventional therapies — we might decrease symptoms by addressing other aspects of wellness that influence brain function:

• Gut health: Bacterial overgrowth or dysbiosis from infection or overuse of antibiotics; parasites
• Brain health: Inflammation from infection or toxins (i.e., heavy metal toxicity, pesticides, chemicals, chronic viral infection); poor Glial health; neurotransmitter imbalance; poor sensory integration
• Diet: Inadequate brain nutrition; food allergies; intolerances
• Hormonal imbalance in adults
  
  

Forum Health’s holistic program for autism spectrum disorder aims to treat these environmental factors, consider genetics, and incorporate the Tomatis method.