new book coming by Valerie Dejean
Tomatis, Autism and Sensory Integration

.......Tomatis Topics

G ravity: In his newest book Ecouter L'Universe, The Listening Universe, Tomatis discusses the underlying influence of sound on everything from the Big Bang to Mozart. "That within the big bang, a sonic experience beyond comprehension, all was created --- all was created in sound." What Tomatis would like us to consider is that this single primary frequency - sound/gravity is most fundamental in the Universe and from it comes everything.

Our perception of sound and gravity via the vestibular-cochlea system of the inner ear is the mechanism through which we participate in this fundamental source. Thomas Berry in his book "The Universe's Story" describes gravity as the glue of the Universe. "That the earth, the planets, the sun, all the stars and all the galaxies beyond our milky way are all bonded together by the primordial attracting power of gravity that permeate the universe." He goes on to say that there is a mutual presence of the universe to each of its parts. Rather than thinking of Newton's apple falling to the earth it would be more accurate to think that the universe draws the earth and the apple into a bonded relationship.

Berry continues to describe this bonding as the universe acting and that this bond is primordial or fundamental because there is nothing else in the universe that is beneath this activity, nor behind it, nor above it, nor inside it. This gravitational bond is called primordial because whatever it is, it is an illustration of pure activity, simple, original, foundational. It is this primary foundation that Tomatis, through his sound stimulation is trying to touch, this great fountainhead of learning, being, and becoming. Through the use of sound stimulation transmitted to the vestibular/cochlea sensory system, there is a gateway into the brain to touch and mobilize this source.

Postural Support

All refined movements of the extremities and head are dependent on an adequate base of muscle tone to provide postural support. A lack of sufficient postural support can contribute significantly to difficulties in controlled movement of our limbs and tongue. Rhythm and Timing or Spatial Temporal Processing. Bilateral Coordination We perform actions through space and in time. This is fundamental to motor planning Bilateral Coordination is another function particularly influenced by the vestibular system. It provides the opportunity for the two sides of the body to communicate with each other at the level of the brain stem via the vestibular nuclei. In this manner it supports the ability of the body to use both sides in a coordinated manner.

We see this initially when the baby starts to develop equilibrium reactions where one side of the body responds differently yet in a coordinated manner with the other side of the body. From this activity the baby develops a sense of where his center is, and then how to move around it (rotation), and across it (crossing midline). This awareness provides the foundation for the development of laterality (sometimes incorrectly referred to as dominance), and for the specialization of skills on each side of the body.

V isual Integrator Tomatis referred to the visual integrator as the mechanism for integrating visual information from the eyes with vestibular information from the body. The vestibular system has a direct and very fast connection with the eyes. This allows the individual to quickly detect whether he or the environment is moving. This vestibular-visual integration is very important developmentally because a baby starts to attach meaning to his visual environment via this double-checking with the vestibular system. Baby develops visual constancy and recognizes that objects are the same no matter which way they are flipped. The baby starts to know if he is to the left, right, over, under, in front of, or behind an object, as well as how these objects relate to him, long before he knows the words for these orientations. In fact it is hard to learn the words for these prepositions if you don't "get" the physical experience of these positions through good vestibular-visual integration.

The vestibular system provides the foundation for accurately interpreting information from our visual field. Therefore it has a major impact on the development of visual perception. Developmentally the visual system depends on the vestibular system to make sense out of what one sees. Space perception (where we are in space/directionality), visual perception (spatial orientation of object and symbols such as letters), and even linguistic concepts of prepositions, are end products of sensory integration that are dependent upon good vestibular-visual integration.

L inguistic Integrator: The vestibular system and the cochlear, the part of the ear that analyses sound, are anatomically joined and form what we call the inner ear. Tomatis thought of them as one system - the Vestibular Cochlear System. The paired VIII cranial nerves carry sensory information to the brain from both the balance and hearing parts of the inner ear.

Vestibular-Cochlear Nerve:

Even when the sensory pathways separate, the auditory and vestibular systems lie closely together throughout the nervous system. This allows for much opportunity for sensory integration between the vestibular and auditory systems. Sensory integration disorders that involve vestibular processing can impact the area of speech and language development. Ayres found in her research that therapy aimed to improve the function of the vestibular system can also result in improved language. Tomatis discovered that faulty sensory information from the ear could affect vocal output.

When children mishear sounds, they will misarticulate them also. This can have a significant impact on speech development. Faulty sensory information can also affect auditory perception. The auditory system is required to interpret all the sounds of spoken language and attach linguistic meaning to them. For example, a dog is able to hear as well or better than humans; however the dog's ear isn't able to separate the speech stream into meaningful words that he can understand. This requires auditory perception and auditory processing. Together they provide the foundation for understanding language - spoken or written.

When we mishear sound through faulty perception and processing, we have difficulty attaching these sounds to the visual symbols for them (letters). Because we mishear the sounds we then misspell them. So problems with reading and writing can be associated with an auditory problem, not just a visual problem. Although we separate auditory perception and processing for diagnostic reasons we often refer to difficulties with them under the single title of "auditory processing disorders." Auditory processing disorders are often related to a disorder of processing within the vestibular system and to difficulties in integrating sensory information between the vestibular and auditory systems. The auditory system needs the stable base provided by the vestibular system in order to process information. Much like the visual system, which has to reference what it sees through the vestibular system, the auditory system also must perform a similar reference. Without stability from the vestibular system, it is difficult for the auditory system to accurately interpret the sound stream.

The Listening Function

Hearing and Listening are very different functions:

Hearing is the passive reception of sounds, while Listening is the active ability, intention, and desire to focus on sounds The ear has psychism; the brain does integration and the subject hears only what he wants to hear. It is much harder to psychologically block what we see, though we can certainly do that judging on how differently people report about the same crime scene. Listening is even much more connected with our psychology, our point of view.

Think of the Autistic child, whom you can almost set a bomb off next to, without a reaction, yet the same child comes running at the softest reframe from his the subject hears only what he wants to hear. "The subject hears only what he wants to hear" . Tomatis realized early in his work this fact and he was never able to treat the ear again as a mechanism of collecting sound. This led him to redefine the functions of the ear and study its' neurological cybernetic loops, its phylogenetic role, and its ontogenetic role. We talked about how the ear through the cochlear integrator, brought the perceptual mechanisms of the ear under the control of our thought and linguistic processes. But he felt that there was more and this he called the Listening Function and he felt it really fell under the domain of Psychology. This is where he came to his final name for his Method, "Audio-Psycho-Phonology", which I already said was referred to as the Tomatis Method .