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Tomatis, Autism and Sensory Integration

.......Tomatis Topics

L anguage and Laterality

Tomatis' discoveries about the directing role of the right ear lead him to research the laterization of auditory function. We need two ears to locate the direction of sound but why the need to lateralized control as he observed in the leading ear? Animals are not lateralized so to speak, yet man seems to have been lateralized since the earliest times.

Wherever man has arisen as a rule his laterality has been largely right handed. No nation or culture of left-handed humans has evolved. Tomatis came to believe that laterality was a key to man's humanization and that without it there would be no language. What was undetermined was did laterality shape language or whether language is at the origin of laterality. Tomatis felt that one couldn't exist without the other. He felt that it was probably a parallel evolution that was most likely.

A lot of the language research of the day was on deaf mutes, particularly those of the 19th century before the advent of sign language. So these individuals not only didn't hear or speak, but they had no internal language structure so to speak. There is a very high degree of manual ambidexterity in deaf-mutes and this was more so before the advent of sign language. In studies of deaf-mutes before the era of sign language and specialized schools, (19th century) 100% of them were ambidextrous prior to the advent of sign language. There is a greater degree of poor laterization in populations with developmental and language delays.

Tomatis felt that language and laterality went hand in hand. The development of language imposed laterality as observed in the deaf-mutes. And the interruption of laterality dissolved language as he observed in his singers. In his experiments with the singers Tomatis noticed that when he suppressed the leading ear, he observed not only dissolution in their language but also in their rhythm and the spatial organization of language. Laterality was a hotly debated topic in the times leading to Tomatis' theories as well as after. Much of the research on laterality was between the theories of localization and theories of association. (Broca and Wernicke).

It was the work of Jackson and Henry Head that explained, "disorders of the nervous system have to be considered as reversals of evolution, that is, as dissolutions" Our modern human scaffolding appears to be a secondary acquisition built upon an ancient structure, This more modern piece while prodigious, is yet more fragile and ready to collapse. - A.A.Tomatis

The evolution of the nervous system moves from Automatism toward voluntary action Simple to complex Rigidly organized toward the more flexible Laterality and Language being our newest to evolve are most vulnerable yet enable us to makes our most automatic acts, the most faithful executors of our will. A.A.Tomatis

L aterality and Language 2 As we have discussed from his research on the leading ear, Tomatis felt that laterality was essential for the control of language. Tomatis came to believe that laterality was a key to man's humanization and that without it there would be no language. They went hand in hand, Language imposed laterality, and if you disturbed laterality you disturbed language. Tomatis identified that it was a control mechanism that was lateralized. Not the functions themselves So language, knowing, and action all come under unilateral control, in order to allow us consciousness, awareness, and control about what we are doing.

Laterality and Control

This control occurs at the first level of our sensory awareness and is known as gnosis, as distinct from unconscious or, to some extent, automatic perception. Any act cybernetically dependent on this control is designated praxis, or acquired act, as distinct from instinctive, involuntary acts. Therefore, both knowledge and conscious gesture must be distinguished, and they depend upon unilateral control. Tomatis explains this functional asymmetry as a question of control rather than dominance. Tomatis would say that the dominant side should more correctly be called the executor while the opposite side should be called the integrator. They have different activities. The dominant side is organized out of the non-dominant sides integrating response.

Tomatis defines a gnosial (knowing) and praxial (acting), the left, and a referential brain, the right, whose main role is to allow us to work out that gnosis and praxis. Thus a right-hander, for example, executes all his praxial, learned acts under the control of his right gnosis, including in this regulation the gestures of the left side of the body. So language, knowing, and action all come under unilateral control, in order to allow us consciousness, awareness, and control about what we are doing. Tomatis identified that it was a control mechanism that was lateralized. Not the functions themselves.

L ATERALITY and 40 Million Frenchmen

The right hand of the Lord doeth valianltly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted:

the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

Psalm 118,15-16

"The Ear and Language"

This is the forward from the chapter on laterality and being a left hander it puts my hair on end. During my first job in a psych hospital the neurologist loaned me a book on the synestrial hand. That's the left hand and it is the root word for sinister. The left hand is the dirty hand. the one you wipe yourself with. I had a French father so I faced this from a young age. I believe culturally the French have a thing about left handedness.

The word in French for right is droit... it also mean the law While the word for left is gauche. Le rive gauche...the left bank Well we know what gauche means also. I just have to tell you a little anecdote about my time in Paris. 3 out of 7 of us from the US in my training were left handed. We were a challenge for him.

Tomatis looks at lateralization from an evolutionary perspective, just as he did the role of the vestibular system in communication. Since animals have no lateralization, he wondered what use this function had for humans.

It seemed to be a very important function because humans seemed to been lateralized since earliest times. Also wherever humans evolved as a rule their laterality has been right-dominant. No nation or culture of left-handed humans exist on this globe, and no pictorial or graphic sign in diverse civilizations ever showed they were executed by any but right-handers. So left-hander contradict the rule. (According to Tomatis.) He feels that there is a reason for this and that laterality plays a key role in the evolution of language.

In studies of deaf-mutes before the era of sign language and specialized schools, (19th century) 100% of them were ambidextrous. There are higher incidences of a-lateralization is people with language disorders. Tomatis feels that laterality and language go hand in hand It is most probable that neither of these mechanisms can exist without the other and that one generates the other and vice versa. Rather than try to determine which preceded the other it was more likely that it was one gradual speciation which is the result of their interrelationship.

Language and Laterality:

Language and the need to control it created the need to construct laterality. Lateralization, via a leading ear, gives us the ability - the first sensory control of our self-listening. Therefore it makes us conscious of our language and breaks us away from a purely automatic process. We can start to hear ourselves speak. Birds do not hear themselves sing. They have no relationship to their voice. It is this audio-vocal control, this self-listening loop, that allows us to form a relationship to our own voices and allow us to develop the type of control that is needed to use our voice as a tool to communicate symbolic information.

The interrelationship between praxis, laterality, and language:

It is this awareness that we have a self, which we discover through self-listening, that Tomatis borrowing from the Greek's uses the word gnosis to describe. Gnosis is to make distinct from unconscious or to some extent automatic perception. He goes on to say that any act that is dependent on gnosis is designated as praxis or acquired. as distinct from instinctive or involuntary. He feels that gnosis and praxis are both lateralized with speech. thus a right hander executes all their praxis, learned acts under the control of their right gnosis, including in this regulation the gestures of the left side of the body. In here Tomatis is establishing the relationship between praxis (and I believe here he means ideational praxis), and language through a lateralized function.