How Sound Therapy Influences the Social Nervous System

On Monday, May 16th the Westchester sub-chapter of the NAA NY Metro chapter was delighted to have Sarah Gayle Schoenbaum present. Sarah an very experienced Occupational Therapist (OT) presented information on the therapeautic program, Solisten®, which is the portable application of the Tomatis® Method. She described how Solisten's revolutionary sound training program strengthens the ear and energizes the brain, improves many areas including auditory and sensory processing, stress, speech and balance. Furthermore, Sarah discussed how hearing is composed of both air and bone conduction . Solisten stimulates both of these as well as the vestibular receptors in the ear. The result is a nervous system that is more efficient including speed and accuracy. With this efficiency the body trusts its own resourses to keep it safe. This may include safety in a complex social environment and safety in a physically challenging environment.

Solisten particularly addresses the social nervous system which is the part of the nervous system that helps us to efficiently respond to complex social situations by stimulating the cranial nerves that help our mouth move and our eyes move and our eardrum hear. This is why solisten is so helpful in reducing the anxiety in children on the spectrum because their social nervous system is brought on line.

The social nervous system is part of the polyvagal system. It is the part of the nervous system that is on line when one feels safe. When one does not feel safe one looses the efficient use of this system and has to rely on the sympathetic or dorsal vegal system which causes fight, flight or freeze. We have all seen this response in our kids. Besides supporting the social nervous system Solisten can positively effect balance, motor planning, auditory processing, and visual spatial awareness. Sarah recommended Stephen Porges' new book The Polyvagal Nervous System to further delve into the intricate nervous system.

The take home message was that children & adults with autism spectrum disorders are in stress and they freeze or overreact to their environment due to dysregulation. By balancing the nervous system through listening therapy one can become balanced and more equipped to handle the surrounding environment.

Sarah Gayle Shoenbaum, MA OTR/L has been in the field since 1979. Sarah is an instructor and clinician of occupational therapy, craniosacral therapy, neurodevelopemental treatment (NDT) and sensory intergration. For more information you can contact Sarah at insidemoves@optonline.net

Valerie Dejean on Tomatis

Valerie DeJean with Katherine Black, Tracy Merslich and Meera Sankar

On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, Valerie Dejean, who practiced occupational therapy for many years and now is a Tomatis consultant and the founder of the Spectrum Center, spoke to our group about attention, behavior and communication.

Dr. Tomatis was a French Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist, who pioneered the listening therapy named after him. Valerie Dejean was trained by Dr. Tomatis himself and her centers have provided Tomatis listening therapy to over 4000 children, with much success. The presentation titled “Attention, Behavior and Communication” was more about the impact of listening on the behavior and not as much on the nuts and bolts of the “Tomatis Therapy”.

Valerie started by defining “developmental” as something that happens during the early years of life and “pervasive” as something that affects the whole body, physically and mentally. Children develop their ability to communicate by listening, watching and then imitating the adults and other children around them. However, children with autism often are impeded by language processing difficulties that leads to problems with communication, social interaction, imaginative play, and behavior.

Valerie described our brains as more “programmed” than “hardwired” -- so that, beyond some basic functions, we learn skills through imitation. If a child lacks or has limited imitative capacity, learning is impacted. Children with autism frequently are dyspraxic, in other words, they have deficits in motor planning, which can affect many areas of function, including listening, imitation, and ,hence, language development. She went on to explain that language is merely symbols that help us communicate. Symbols are then related to ideas and thoughts. She gave an example of the word “ball”. We know that the symbols (letters) B-A-L-L means that it is something that is round, can roll on the ground and can bounce. Though a child with autism may be able to spell the word “ball” he or she may not be able to connect that word with the concept of what the ball can do and hence may not understand that if it is thrown on the ground, it will roll towards another child.

In addition, if our sensory system is faulty we cannot properly take in information from our environment. According to Valerie, Tomatis helps develop the ability to use our awareness to control our actions and to more appropriately and effectively use information from our environment. She also described the way in which Tomatis can reawaken neural networks and get them working -- to re-educate the auditory system to develop the ability to focus our attention and thus develop “event perception” -- an ability to, among other things, effectively understand and organize information from our environment.

Hearing is different from listening, Valerie said. We hear lots of things simultaneously when we are on the street or when many people are talking. However we listen ( purposefully) to one or a few voices in order to analyze and understand what we are hearing. We have the ability to ignore the background sounds. Some of the children with autism disorders have difficulty with this process. Tomatis programs, she said improves the listening abilities of these children and in doing so, improves their ability to interact and communicate.

Khalid Rehman, MD
Kim Mack Rosenberg