Listening and Learning

Listening and concentration

Sound Therapy improves overall hearing and listening abilities, which assist with learning, reading, writing and communication skills. When these areas are addressed, concentration becomes much easier for the child.

Does my child need Sound Therapy?

Sound Therapy may assist in the normal healthy development of a child's ability to listen and process sounds. Because listening is the foundation of so much of our learning, it is vitally important to support our children's development in this area before they reach school age.

It may not be obvious that listening is the cause of your child's problems, but remember that listening is the foundation for most of our communication skills. Poor listening can lead to:

poor concentration
bad behaviour
delayed reading and writing skills
poor performance at school
social isolation
child not achieving up to his/her potential

How to identify a potential listening problem

If several of the points on this list apply to your child then it is very likely that she or he would benefit from Sound Therapy.

Difficult family history
History of ear infections
Difficulty in using language and explaining herself/himself in words
Short attention span, easily distracted
A tendency to misinterpret messages or to ask for them to be repeated
Poor at following instructions
Slow to develop intelligible speech
Does not get along well with peers
A lack of enthusiasm and initiative
A reluctance to communicate
Difficulty in reading aloud
Poor social skills, which may result in withdrawal, hyperactive or aggressive behaviour
Difficulty in reading and writing which manifests as reversal of letter forms, sound confusion, slowness or messy work
There may seem to be a higher aptitude in maths than in English
Child lacks response to human speech yet seems to respond to environmental sounds

Research and Media

Testimonials

Product Information

Why can't my child listen?

"Listening is the road to learning" Dr Tomatis

When a child has difficulty reading, the most obvious cause would appear to be a visual disorder. However, recent research reflects a growing recognition that learning problems are much more frequently related to a listening problem.

Listening is the most basic element of communication and is a pre-requisite for other skills such as speaking, reading, and writing . It is through the ear and our capacity to interpret sound that we develop a relationship with our environment and with those around us. Listening is also the first building block in the process of learning linguistic skills. To read and write a child must be able to accurately hear all the sounds that make up words, identify them quickly and perceive them in the right order. This is called Auditory processing. Interruption in the development of the listening function at an early age can result in emotional withdrawal or maladjustment and may produce severe learning or behavioural problems.

Promoting accurate listening

On the Sound Therapy tapes the sounds have been altered so that they require the ear to reach outside its restricted range and regain the adaptability required for accurate listening.
Once the ear is able to focus properly the child is less likely to be distracted by other environmental sounds and will be better able to concentrate on the work at hand.
Concentration is also promoted by Sound Therapy because the complex harmonies in the music stimulate many parts of the brain and improve brain integration.

Closing the ear

Children may withdraw from communication because of early emotional trauma, repeated ear infections or other unknown causes. They close down their listening ability by involuntarily choosing more indirect brain circuits which makes their processing of sound inefficient. The ears do not have lids the way the eyes do but they have ways of closing off internally to protect the child from disturbing input or loud noise. The immature psyche may shut down as a defence mechanism which then becomes habitual and slows normal development.

How can Sound Therapy help?

Re-opening the ear

Sound Therapy retrains the child's ability to listen and concentrate by working on the motivation to listen as well as improving the ability of the ear to 'tune in' to sound. High frequency sounds (high tones rather than low tones) are emphasised because these sounds stimulate and re-awaken the ear's full hearing capacity. Tomatis discovered that as the embryonic ear develops in the womb, the first sounds which the child hears are high frequency sounds. For this reason, the high frequency sounds of Sound Therapy have a soothing and reassuring effect on the child.

Accelerate your child's potential

Sound Therapy is recommended for all children including highly gifted children, and will assist the development of good learning and study abilities, just as exercise helps to develop balance, strength and muscular co-ordination. The ear and the auditory cortex are vitally important centers for learning, communication and higher brain function. Sound Therapy is an easy way to input a very positive stimulus that will help to maximize your child's potential.

Today children need extra support to develop their auditory function because they are affected by many detrimental environmental factors. The world is noisier than ever, so children's ears are bombarded with a lot of loud and damaging sounds before they have fully developed. Environmental toxins also lead to poor immunity, infections and sensitivities which impact on many children's development. Sound Therapy is the perfect brain training program to complement good nutrition, good education and a loving environment. The complex rhythms and harmonies of classical music train the brain to think conceptually and improve intelligence. This effect is augmented by the special filtering used in the recordings.