THE
TOMATIS METHOD
BY
JILL LAWTON
Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis is a French ear, nose, and
throat doctor who made astonishing medical and psychological discoveries
that led to audio-psycho-phonology, or the Tomatis method. Also called
“auditory training”, auditory stimulation”, and “listening therapy”, the
purpose of this treatment is to reeducate the way we listen, and it is
used in over two hundred and fifty centers around the world. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
The Tomatis method claims to benefit a wide variety
of people. People suffering from auditory processing problems, dyslexia,
attention deficit disorder, autism, and learning disorders can improve
their communication and social behavior by auditory stimulation, which
can eliminate or reduce the severity of the disorder. This is based
on the belief that the symptoms of these disorders are not caused by the
disorder itself, but by a sensory regulation problem that begins in our
most primordial sensory instrument, the inner ear. (http://www.tomatis.net/Tomatis_tomatis.html)
In addition,
those suffering from depression, low self-esteem, or just wanting to learn
a new language or fine tune their musical talent can also benefit from
this unique treatment. Attention, focus, learning, and language abilities
can all be improved by retraining the ear to listen using “charging high-frequency
sounds”. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
The ear has three basic functions. The first
is the most obvious, the filtration and analysis of sound by a part of
the ear called the cochlea. This function consists of two parts:
hearing and listening. Hearing is a passive process and we have limited
abilities to improve it. Listening, however, is the ear’s primary
function. When the sensations are running smoothly, one can easily
process and filter sound. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
Events such as emotional stress, poor sensory stimulation and communication
models, or unpleasant childhood experiences can encourage a more selective
listening process and reduce the desire to listen at all.
The second function is the establishment of spatial
dynamic, produced by the vestibular portion of the inner ear. The
inner ear, or vestibule and cochlea, is linked to each other and the brain,
almost all cranial nerves are somehow connected to the acoustic nerves.
Through its strong influence on the fight against gravity and motion detection,
the inner ear controls balance equilibrium, coordination, and muscle tone.
(http://www.tomatis.com/adresses.toronto.html)
The third and most controversial function is the charging or recharging
of brain. and in turn the body with electric potential. A “vibration
sensor” within the ear sends this electric message to the brain to give
both it and the body energy. When this nuerocharge is combined with
the sounds filtered and produced by the cochlea, 90% of the total body’s
charge can be accounted for by the inner ear. This charge is what sends
messages to our joints, bones, and muscles and provides us with energy
to think, create, and move It is created by high frequency sounds fond
in Mozart and Gregorian chants. Low frequency sounds that come from
rock or rap music make our bodies move to exhaustion, eventually draining
energy from the brain. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
The inner ear, or vestibular-cochlear system, is
one of the first sensory systems to develop in the fetus. By the
fifth month it is fully developed and sending message to the rest of the
nervous system. Early stimulation is vital to the portal central
nervous system. This stimulation is caused by high frequency sounds.
Low frequency sounds, such as heartbeat, breathing and visceral noises
are filtered out by the amniotic fluid. (http://www.tomatis.net/Tomatis_tomatis.html)
Therefore, the most dominating sound the developing fetus hears is
the high frequency sound of the mother’s voice through bone conduction.
Observations concur with Dr. Tomatis’s hypothesis that this voice plays
an important role on the developing sensory system of a fetus. Phonemes
are the smallest unit of sound; there are fifty phonemes that create all
language. By the seventh month of development, a fetus has a specific,
spontaneous muscular response to each phoneme the mother’s voice produces.
This fascinating sensory-motor response can be inhibited by lack of or
abnormal stimulation, causing the central nervous system to have difficulties
perceiving and processing information. (http://www.tomatis.net/Tomatis_tomatis.html)
Another possible cause of disorders, learning disabilities,
and depression is left ear dominance. Most people are surprised to
learn we have a dominant ear, which controls the opposite side of the body
(very similar to the brain). People who are right ear dominant have
an advantage because the right ear processes much faster. They have
more control over the parameter of their voice and speech. A study
by two psychologists concluded that those with right ear dominance related
to situations faster, responded to stimuli more appropriately, and had
better control over their emotions. Those who had a dominant left ear tended
to be more introverted and had less control over their responses to situations.
The Tomatis method of auditory training claims to train the right ear to
become dominant. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
In 1953, Dr. Alfred Tomatis said “The voice contains
only the sounds which the ear hears.” This quote basically sums up
the process he created to reteach the ear to listen. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
The program begins with an initial assessment with a consultant to test
present and potential hearing. The patient is also evaluated to ensure
that auditory stimulation is the appropriate treatment. Then a program
is custom made, but it follows a basic pattern. (http://www.tomatis.com/addresses.toronto.html)
The Electronic Ear is a tape recorder where sound is filtered and frequency
can be adjusted. Initially, workouts consist of sessions of listening
to very high frequencies that stimulate the pre-natal sounds and reproduce
the stages of development from an audial point of view. This training
makes it possible to switch ear dominance, reteach the listening process.
These passive exercises, which consist of listening to specific frequencies,
are gradually combined with active exercises utilizing the voice to maintain
the lessons learned. (http://www.tomatis.com/testimonials.
flores.html) For language learning and transformation of words and
pictures, beginning with pre-natal sounds enables a person to learn a language
quicker and more efficiently. (http://www.net/Tomatis_tomatis.html)
The first fifteen days usually require about two hours a day.
Subsequent sessions are shorter, with up to one or two months between each
session. http://www.tomatis.com/testimonials.
flores.html
There is a story that says Dr. Tomatis visited a
Benedictine monastery in France in the early 1960’s following the second
Vatican Council. One of the decisions the council had made was to
eliminate the traditional chanting for a more constructive use of time.
Gradually changes took place among the monks. They became more lethargic
and less motivated. Sleeping more and eating more was no help.
In February of 1952, Dr. Tomatis was invited back to evaluate the situation.
His Electronic Ear was put into use to improve the men’s hearing, which
had weakened since he had seen them last. He also requested that
the chanting be brought back into their daily routine. Nine months
later the monks had fully returned to their rigorous lifestyle of little
sleep, hard work, and vegetarian diets with renewed vigor. The singing
of the chant was believed to affect the brain as to bring energy to the
body. (http://www.tomatis.com/add.html)
“I remember when I felt the miracle of Tomatis.
I was in a cubicle doing an active listening exercise…Suddenly I could
hear from an ear that seemed to be on top of my head, I began crying.
It was a peak experience…I didn’t know that I had never heard my own voice.”
Elizondo Flores claims that her whole life was changed as a result of the
Tomatis auditory training. She felt more liberty, balance, vigor,
and most importantly confidence and trust in her own life. Her communication
skills, which used to be minimal as a result of low self-esteem, have improved
tremendously, and she has a much better perception of who she is.
(http://www.toamtis.com/testimonials.flores.html)
On a more scientific note, Dr. Plessis, an experienced
therapist, conducted a more accurate study involving young females evaluated
as “anxious” by the IPAT scale, a biographical questionnaire, and three
other similar tests. Twenty girls were selected, and ten of them
were used as a control. The remaining ten underwent sixty sessions
of filtered music and regular therapeutic evaluations. Scores on
the Purpose in Life test increased significantly in the experimental group
but decreased in the control. Both groups scored better on the S.A
Wechsler Intelligence Test, and the experimental group scored significantly
higher on a measure of self-actualization. This same study was conducted
on fourteen girls tested as “non-anxious”. The results were similar,
but no control was used. About fourteen months later, a follow up
concluded that both the anxious and non-anxious girls retained their increased
level of self-actualization, but the control did not. (http://www.tomatis.com/depression.html)
In a study by the Tomatis Center in Toronto, Canada,
over four hundred children and teens with histories of learning problems
and under-achievement were treated. The parents graded the results
of the therapy on a five-point scale. They reported improvements
in the following areas:
Communication…89%
Attention Span…86%
Reading Comprehension…85%
Maturity…84%
Frustration Level…80%
Quality of Speech…74%
Memory…73%
Spelling…69%
In a follow up report taken six months after the
program was completed, 83% had maintained improvements, and some of these
had continued to progress further. 14% of the children had maintained
a portion of the gains. Only 3% had not maintained any improvements.
In several French schools, the Ministry of Education funded the Tomatis
Method for children with learning disabilities. The results were
good enough that the program has continued year after year.
In the early 1980’s, De Bruto oversaw a controlled
study on children with serious developmental problems who were residents
of the Witrand Care and Rehabilitation Center in South Africa. This
carefully controlled test consisted of three group: group A had Tomatis
auditory stimulation and a sensory motor stimulation program, group B had
a non-Tomatis auditory stimulation program and the same motor stimulation,
and group C had no treatment. The Baily Scales of Infant Development
and a measure of responsiveness indicated that both groups A and B showed
an increase in mental age, but the increase in the Tomatis group was significantly
higher. There was no change in the control group. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html)
In general, the few tests found on the Internet
had positive results. However, documented clinical trials tended
to be far less optimistic. A report by the American Speech Language
Hearing Association assessed the investigations of the treatment in relation
to functioning, emotions, and relationships. The results showed that
the Tomatis method did not meet the scientific standards for efficiency
(anonymous, 1994). J. Kershner reports in Learning Disability Quarterly
that he retested 26 of 32 learning disabled children two years after treatment.
A measure of auditory discrimination determined the placebos to be superior
to the treated individuals (Kershner, 1986). Results of a one year
follow up consisting of tests of intelligence, academic achievement, and
linguistic skills of learning disabled children who both had and had not
participated in Tomatis auditory training also failed to support the educational
effectiveness of the program (Kershner, 1986).
Thirty-two learning disabled children between the
ages of seven and fourteen were randomly assigned to the Tomatis Listening
Training program. The remaining participated in the Special Tutorial Program,
a control for effects of attention, parental interest, and possible placebo
effects. The groups consisted of equal numbers of subjects with processing
disabilities. The subjects were tested measured in psycho-educational
ability, neuropsychological functioning, and self-concept before and after
the program. There was no significant difference between the groups
on the Tomatis Listening Test. There was significant improvement
in both groups in achievement, linguistics, auditory perception, personality,
and Tomatis laterality measures. No differences were found on the
psychometer or the post-treatment questionnaire. These results suggest
the that the Tomatis program is not an accurate method of remedying learning
disabilities (Cummings, 1986).
Not all studies were negative; there were a few,
vague sources documenting more positive results. The
South African Journal of Psychology states that in an overview of eight
studies of the effects of the Tomatis procedure on laterality, stuttering,
anxiety, and mental handicaps. Overall it was documented that there
were positive results: improved self-control, self-concept, interpersonal
relations, and achievement (Van-Jaarsveld, 1988). In a book written
by Dr. Tomatis, Dyslexia, he states that after auditory modifications that
there was improvement in all subjects and permanent positive results (Tomatis,
1969).
One must always be skeptical when retrieving information
from the worldwide web. Based on this alone, it could be concluded
that the theory behind the Tomatis method is plausible. However,
little to no evidence was provided to prove right ear dominance to be beneficial
or that high frequency sounds really do “charge” the brain and the body.
There were also not many objective test results available. Most
studies were either not scientific, as in the case of Mrs. Flores’s testimonial
or the story of the monastery, or taken by centers that were probably trying
to “sell” the program. No mention of cost was found. The few
experimental results found taken by individual psychologists were somewhat
obscure and possibly misleading. How could the control group scores
decrease on the Purpose in Life test? How does one measure self-actualization?
The studies mentioned also did a poor job controlling the outside variables.
This program is difficult to evaluate because there is no black and white
measure of whether or not it accomplishes its claims. Results could
possibly depend on the individual’s pre-program condition, attitude, and
expectations.
Objective clinical tests were difficult to find.
Many of them were not in English and the abstracts were rather vague.
The two overviews with positive outcomes had little to justify their conclusions.
The South African studies had very little information available about who
was tested, how they were tested, or how the studies were evaluated. The
other was by Tomatis himself, so it could not have been completely objective.
Although the other studies found had more detail, it was still difficult
to compare them because evaluation, procedure, control, and subjects differed
from test to test. However, most of the conclusions were similar:
the Tomatis method is not effective in creating or sustaining increased
self control, intelligence, self- concept, hearing, or language skills.
Although the auditory stimulation technique sounds like it would have some
potential for improving a person’s listening and communication, after examining
the clinical tests available one can conclude that it lacks the concrete
evidence needed to become a standard treatment.
Anonymous. (1994). Auditory Integration Training. ASHA, 36, 55-58.
Cummings, Richard Lloyd. (1986). An Evaluation of the Tomatis Listening
Training
Program. Dissertation Abstracts International,
47, 858-859.
Kershner, John R. (1990). Journal of the Division for Children with
Learning Disabilities.
Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 13,
43-53.
Kershner, John R. (1986). Evaluation of the Tomatis Listening Program.
Canadian
Journal of Special Education, 2, 1-32.
Tomatis, Alfred. (1969). Dyslexia. Ontario: University
of Ottawa Press, 83.
Van-Jaarsveld, Pieter E; du-Plessis, Wynand F. (1988). Audio-psycho-phonology
at
Potchefstroom: A review. South African
Journal of Psychology, 18, 136-143.
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