Gordon Parks Tomatis Auditory Skills Program

French opera singers may seem a far cry from at-risk children in Kansas City. However they share a common link in Alfred Tomatis, a French physician who pioneered techniques that use Mozart and Gregorian chant to “retrain the brain.”

Gordon Parks co-founder and board member Dorothy Curry heard about the innovative method—some consider it ground-breaking—when she met Pat Henry, a nurse who had discovered Tomatis in working with her own three kids. Curry was intrigued by the family’s first-hand experience. Based on the therapy’s success as a catalyst for learning by developing hearing and listening skills, she was excited about the possibilities for students here.

Soon after that conversation, Henry had donated all the equipment and had become a volunteer to help implement a program at Gordon Parks.

Based on results of a precise listening test, Tomatis therapy targets specific sound frequencies that the student does not process for various reasons. In simple terms, the therapy filters out specific frequencies, then re-introduces them to strengthen auditory processing, says former Executive Director Lynne Beachner, Ph.D., under whose direction the program was set up.

Faster than the Speed of Sound?

“Auditory processing” refers to the way we hear: how the ears and brain receive, process, store, retrieve and use auditory information.” Compared to sight, we process sound more slowly than pictures. According to the Creative Listening Center, “The speed of auditory processing is critical to success in learning and communication.” In other words, this is a case of speed being just as important as the information itself.

“Many children are affected by the slower processing of language; in other words, it takes longer to grasp the meaning of what they’ve just heard. Many children are sensitive in a different way. We think the ear’s job is getting auditory information to the brain. Yet, and important role is keeping unnecessary information in the background. The focusing of attention is done with the ear, as well as the brain. If the muscles of the middle ear are weak, they are not serving their role of filtering sounds so that the mind can be focused and attentive.” – Ron Minson, M.D. the founder of The Center for InnerChange.

Minson studied personally with Dr. Tomatis in Europe and returned to the States as one of the first Americans to be certified in the Tomatis Method.

Tomatis Therapy

It takes a little technology to put Tomatis therapy into action. “It’s basically a very sophisticated CD player,” Beachner explains.

Listening tests indicate what frequencies need to be bolstered. With this information, Beachner tailors a program for each student’s needs. Technician Helen Cesena enters the frequency settings into the player and hands the student a headset. While students listen, Cesena engages them in other activities. She modifies the frequency settings every 15 minutes over a one-hour session. Activities include board games and painting—anything except eating or reading. The equipment supports up to four students per session, each one listening to his or her own music.

“We’re training the ear to recognize those specific frequencies,” says Beachner. The equipment takes out certain frequencies, then reintroduces them as the session continues. The second protocol is called “gating.” The equipment switches the recording’s frequencies, not gradually but like a toggle, from one frequency directly to another. “Gating exercises your ear to make the adjustment.”

Beachner explains that sound waves are transmitted through both air and bone. “Some kids become conditioned to hearing primarily through bone conduction,” she says. The equipment and programming can actually modify this pathway or medium over time, so the child re-learns how to hear via air conduction.

The kids do the therapy two to three times a week, which is a significant amount of time away from the classroom. That’s why Beachner is especially excited about educators who are bringing curriculum into the mix. The kids can do math, spelling, and so on while they are listening to a story that has been filtered.

Like many therapies in various settings, response varies among students. “We’re primarily tracking test scores and behavior to measure improvement,” says Beachner. “Some students show very little change, others experience a five-year jump.” She described one student with autism. “By the end of the therapy, he was laughing and talking—it really helped his communication skills.” Staff also has seen improved behavior in children with severe ADHD. One student who suffers with a range of tics experienced a significant drop in symptoms.”

Given the range of outcomes, Beachner notes that it can be difficult to get solid research. Overall, however, given their experience at Gordon Parks, Beachner has observed an average of about a two-and-a-half-year improvement in test scores.

A Tomatis Champion

Gordon Parks’ Johnetta Greer has worked one-on-one with kids doing Tomatis. She is eager to champion its benefits:

“During a Tomatis session I did several activities with the children. We played all sorts of board games, and I always gave the students a chance to change the rules, to make a familiar game a little more interesting. We played lots of other games, such as card games, checkers, and Legos.

“We also practiced spelling words and did math drills.

“Puzzles were very interesting. Working puzzles with our students gave me the perfect opportunity to observe them in the areas of focusing and memory. Some got frustrated at first but it didn’t take long for that to start showing a change.

“The children also enjoyed painting. It’s one of the most enjoyable and recommended activities. It was always interesting to see a child’s painting at the start of Tomatis, and the difference in their painting after three or more one-hour sessions. The change was awesome.

“We have done pre- and post-testing every year since we started. The results have been just great, especially in the areas of behavior issues, focusing and verbal skills. Of course there is research ongoing on a national level, but for myself, all I have learned, read and seen with my own eyes, Tomatis is an excellent choice.”