Health & Fitness

The Benefits of Tomatis Treatment
For many people who live each day with developmental disorders and brain impairments, Tomatis treatment is a way of life. Born in France in 1920, Dr. Alfred Tomatis was an ear, nose, throat doctor obsessed with learning about occupational noise and its effects on those exposed to its hazards. In his studies, he made several discoveries about how hearing relates to sound perception and learning. From his studies the Tomatis treatment was born.

Those afflicted with learning disabilities, Down Syndrome, epilepsy, and other disorders that compromise brain activity and processing have found the Tomatis method to be a life enhancing treatment. Without the use of drugs and surgery, the Tomatis method of listening to modulated sound frequencies has proven to relieve many of the symptoms associated with these disorders. In fact, many celebrities and prominent social figures have found success using Tomatis sound therapy.

How It Works
Tomatis first began his study of how the brain perceives sound when his father, an opera singer, told Tomatis that over time many singers find it difficult to vocalize certain sounds later in their careers. Tomatis found that deafness to certain high frequency pitches was a common hazard of the profession. Through research and study he deduced that the ability to hear a sound is directly related to being able to vocalize it. By re-training the ear to hear certain sounds by strengthening the inner ear muscle he was able to restore vocalization to the group of singers he studied.

Tomatis further concluded that not being able to comprehend sound is what causes learning disabilities and comprehension issues in many. He used his technique of sound therapy to stimulate the muscles in the right ear for further stimulation of the right brain. This is the brains hemisphere used for language processing. With this strategy Tomatis patients experienced better listening and comprehension for easier learning. Today, Tomatis sound therapy is used by professionals everywhere in the form of audio tapes and CDs which stimulate brain activity and train the right hemisphere to comprehend without impairment.