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Auditive Perception and Processing Training with Autists according to Basic Principles of Dr. A. TomatisBiomedical treatments of autism establish themselves more and more as the basic therapy. Thanks to the internet many parents of children with autism have the possibility to inform themselves about new treatments and to exchange experiences. I as well have learned many new things in the last years, made new experiences and developed new treatment methods and therapies. Knowledge, experience, and examination and treatment possibilities which I would like to make available for you and to offer them to you. Like every therapy, the “bio” medicine is also limited. Every day I experience that many of my patients feel much or moderately better after the initiation of a treatment (diet, taking orthomolecular preparations, microbiological therapy, etc.). However, I am aware of the fact that the job is not done yet. Years ago, I wrote in “Ein offener Brief an Eltern von Kindern mit Autismus” (“An open letter to parents of children with autism”, published in 2003): “Autism is a multifactorial disease and needs a multilateral treatment………... An autism therapy is based on three pillars: biomedical sciences, sensory integration and behavior therapy. It is necessary to modify successful concepts individually. For the second pillar of the therapy, I would like to give you an understanding of the sensory integration, to inform you about it and to offer it to you in my practice as the TOMATIS therapy. Autism is a severe developmental disorder which is associated with a disorder of the communication based on a dysfunction of the sensory perception and processing. The processing of stimuli in terms of “filtering” unimportant sensory stimuli and the selective perception are more or less impaired. About 1 billion bits per second are absorbed of the environment by the sense organs in a resting state. However, the processing capacity is only 100 bits per second on average! Today it is known that the brain performs a repressive function in order to filter irrelevant, unimportant sensory stimuli and to shift them to the background via side canals. If this function is disturbed, chaos is dominates the head. Many of us bring their children to an otorhinolaryngologist in order to exclude hearing problems. The ears are examined. Maybe an audiogram is written, too, in order to check whether the acoustical stimuli reach the brain. Nothing is found and you carry on….! However, only few scientists thought about whether the stimuli are processed or perceived correctly. Prof. Dr. Tomatis, French otorhinolaryngologist (1920-2001), observed the impact of the auditory perception on the development of speech, language, communication, reading, writing, motor function, etc. and tried to explain the dependencies scientifically. It is a matter of fact that “a healthy ear is a necessary but not sufficient condition that we can hear properly… the neural impulses have to be further processed in the brain.” We know that the brain cells are designed and anatomically completed relatively early in the pregnancy. The development of the working neural synapses and the linking of the nerve cells take place through appropriate sensory stimuli. The ear as sense organ is completely developed in the 20th week of the pregnancy and the selective hearing (listening) of (to) the mother voice plays a crucial role for the brain according to Tomatis, particularly in areas which are responsible for communication, language, relationships and social behavior. We try to catch up on the development and to correct the defective developments by means of a “listening therapy” which is here called “Tomatis”. In the second phase (active phase) subtleties are corrected, like for example reading, pronunciation, singing, and so on.
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