2. What is the Tomatis®
Method?
• A sound therapy that uses music to :
• train Listening
• help improve Sensory functioning
• help improve Cognitive and Neurological
functioning
• help improve Emotional wellbeing
3. Dr. Alfred Tomatis
3
• 1 January 1920 – 25 December 2001
• He was a French ENT doctor at
the Paris Faculty of Medicine, a specialist of
hearing and language disorders
• Several sound therapies are based on the
Tomatis method, e.g. Berard AIT and iLs
• Solisten is a trademark owned exclusively by
Tomatis Developpement SA
4. Who can benefit?
• Learning difficulties
• Attention disorders
• Developmental delays
• Communication and speech delays and disorders
• Pervasive developmental disorders
• Sensory integration disorder
• Auditory integration difficulties
• Anxiety and depression
• Helpful in the rehabilitation of stroke victims
6. The Types of Music
• Mozart, especially his works that are rich in
high harmonics for their brain-energising
function;
• Gregorian Chants that have a proven
regulating and calming effect on the autonomic
nervous system;
• Strauss waltzes that have a stimulating
effect on the vestibular system and promotes
the establishment of rhythm and balance.
7. Corrective Action
• The Tomatis
®
method acts on the 3 core
functions of the ear:
• Energy function
• Vestibular function
• Auditory function
8. Energy function
• Sound is needed for cortical stimulation.
• Especially sounds that are rich in high
harmonics, have the ability to stimulate
the reticular formation in the brain which
controls the overall activity level of the
brain.
9. Vestibular function
• Benefits posture, balance, motor
functions and muscle-tone.
• A well functioning vestibular system
is fundamental to learning.
10. The Auditory Function
• The ears contain structures for both the
sense of hearing and the sense of
balance.
11.
12. Listening vs. hearing
• Listening is an active activity that involves
receiving, deciphering, and perceiving a message
with the intent to respond.
• Listening = purpose.
• Listening is to hearing what aiming is to sight.
(Tomatis)
13. Distortions of Listening
• Someone may hear well but listen poorly.
• Emotional disturbances
• Adjustment difficulties
• Factors in the acoustic environment
• A listening bias
• The sound message is correctly heard but poorly
analysed in an emotional framework.
• The brain protects itself by constructing barriers that
can result in the development or exacerbation of
various disorders.
14. A Pedagogical Tool
• ”The ear is learning to listen”.
• The Tomatis
®
Method stimulates the brain
and progressively helps it to analyse the sound
message more effectively.
15. Effect on the brain
• The ear is connected to 7 of the 12 pairs of
cranial nerves:
• II, III, IV and VI (the eyes and vision)
• VIII – the vestibulocochlear nerve
• X – the vagus nerve
• XI – the spino-accessory nerve
• Through the auditory pathways, the
Tomatis
®
Method affects the entire nervous
system
16. Cranial Nerve: Major Functions:
II Optic vision
III Oculomotor eyelid and eyeball movement
IV Trochlear innervates superior oblique
turns eye downward and laterally
VI Abducens turns eye laterally
VIII Vestibulo-cochlear
(auditory)
hearing and equilibrium sensation
X Vagus senses aortic blood pressure
slows heart rate
stimulates digestive organs
taste
XI Spinal Accessory controls trapezius & sternocleidomastoid
controls swallowing movements
17. The Ear as Sensory
Information Processing
Organ
• About 90% of sensory information processing
involves the ear.
• The sensory system functions as a whole:
• by stimulating the ear, we can have an effect
on the entire sensory system.
18. Sensory Processing
• How the brain registers, interprets and uses
information from the sensory systems.
• The sensory systems include:
• Sight (visual system)
• Hearing (auditory system)
• Taste (gustatory system)
• Touch (tactile system)
• Smell (olfactory system)
• Body awareness (proprioceptive system)
• Balance (vestibular system)
19. Regulation of Sensory
Input
• Our brain is constantly bombarded by sensory input.
• With the exception of smell, all other sensory input is
filtered by the brain stem before further dealt with. It is
either:
• Deemed insignificant and ignored.
• Deemed important, thus noticed and relayed to the
appropriate area of the brain for a response.
• Habituated or eventually ignored if the input is
constant, for example wearing a seatbelt.
20. Sensory Processing
Difficulties
• Can affect anybody
• Can range from mild to severe
• Tend to be more common in those with
conditions such as autism, Tourette syndrome,
Fragile X, ADHD, learning difficulties, etc.
21. Brain development and
function
• Sensory input is needed for our brain to
develop and to continue functioning
properly.
• Research indicates that sensory input
may improve the neural circuitry.
• We can use sensory input to change our
arousal state.
23. Parameters of the Tomatis®
Method
• Bone conduction
• Electronic gating
• C1 & C2
• Delay & precession
• Stapedial reflex
• Filtering
24. Bone Conduction
• Two types of sound conduction:
• Bone conduction
• through the skull
• vibrations directly inform the auditory nerve;
•
Air conduction
• airwaves cause the tympanic membrane to send
vibrations to the inner ear to stimulate the
vestibulo-cochlear nerve (auditory vestibular
nerve).
25. Bone conduction
• Sound travels faster through bone than
through air.
• BC prepares the body for the auditory
message delivered through Air Conduction.
• causes the whole body to assume the
“listening posture”
26. Gating
• 2 alternating circuits stem from the
amplifier:
C1 : low frequencies which puts
the ear in a state of relaxation.
When the music reaches a certain
intensity, a switch occurs to C2
whilst C1 cuts off.
C2 : higher frequencies which
puts the ear in a state of effort.
When the intensity drops the
system switches back. C1 opens
while C2 cuts off.
C1
C2
`
The switching is dependant on the
changes of intensity in the music,
and is therefore, unpredictable,
causing the brain and ear to be in a
constant state of alert
27. Gating: Delay
• There is a delay between the moment when the
“gate” is going to switch over and the moment when
it actually does switch over from C1 to C2.
• The delay allows the ear time to put itself in a
listening position, that is, to prepare for the auditory
message that is about to follow.
• We always start with the Basic program, which has
the longest delays allowing the ear enough time to
prepare for the sound message.
28. Precession
• Time needed for the Bone Conduction to precede
the Air Conduction.
• The cochlea has already received the sound
through BC and has made a first analysis.
• In response, it will adjust the tension of the tympanic
membrane in preparation for the airwave it is about
to receive.
• This period of precession allows the whole body to
prepare itself for listening.
29. Filtering
• It is the amplification or attenuation of the high
and/or low frequencies of the sound spectrum.
• Four types of filters:
High pass filters
Low pass filters
Band pass filters
Band rejection filters
30. Filtering
• No filtering is used in the Basic program.
• Three filtering levels are used in the remaining
programs:
• Filtering at 500 Hz with a 24dB/octave slope;
• Filtering at 1000 Hz with a 12 dB/ octave slope;
• Filtering at 2500 Hz with a 6 dB/ octave slope.
• Solisten uses “soft slopes” to makes the changes
brought about by gating and filters, easier on the
ear.
31. The Filters
• 500 Hz filtering is used in the programs
Emotional
Language
Memory & Attention.
• 1000 Hz is used particularly in the Language program
to work on the 2nd
formant zone – the vowels area (750 Hz
to 3000 Hz) and in the Memory & Attention program to
stimulate verbal memory and attention.
• 2500 Hz is used particularly in the Language program
to work on the 3rd
and 4th
formants – the fricatives area (s, j,
ch, z, f). The fricatives area spreads widely in treble
frequencies.
33. Sessions
• First intensive – 30 hours
2 hours a day over 15 days
4 week integration period
• Second intensive – 30 hours
2 hours a day over 15 days
4 - 8 week integration period
• ASD usually need more sessions
33
34. The Process
Clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder usually need more sessions
Repeat as needed
Intensive:
30 hours,
2 hours a day
over 15 days
Intensive:
30 hours
2 hours a day
over 15 days
4 week
integration
period
Initial Consultation
Pre-testing Post-testing
Parent feedback
4 week
integration
period
Exit
35. Cost
• R130 per hour
• Includes consultation, Solisten pre- and post
testing, and feedback
• Excludes any tests and evaluations by therapist
from other fields, e.g. OTs, psychologists or
speech therapists
• Total, including 60 hours of listening plus
testing, R8000
