Skip Navigation

Kyle's Story

Written by Shelley Daniels

Letter to the Editor, This Week, Tuesday Edition, September 28, 1999

I also have a child who was diagnosed at two-and a-half years old with the severe speech disorder Developmental Apraxia. With apraxia, the child has all the parts for speech and language but they are just not connected. Like Mrs. Marlow, I searched for services. My son Kyle also receives speech therapy from Grandview when the 6-8 week block of therapy is offered. We use a private speech services clinic when not at Grandview.

For his motor skills we sought Sensory Integration Occupational Therapy through private services called Inter-Action in Whitby. He is still on the four-year waiting list for sensory integration therapy at Lakeridge Hospital.

Through another parent, we learnt about the Listening Centre. Listening training, voice training is done through a program of sound stimulation and counseling based on the work of the Dr. Alfred Tomatis. Through specialized audio equipment individuals listen with headphones to filtered Mozart music. Our son could only pronounce vowel and two consonants when he entered the program at three-years-old. After the first intensive phase he was able to imitate several sounds. The connections were being made for speech. It was not long and the words started - first single syllable then multi-syllable. Speech therapy became a daily part of our lives. Three months after the second intensive phase and a one week reinforcer ‘boost’, Kyle was talking in 2-3 word sentences.

The Listening Centre was the turning point on his road to a remarkable recovery. Our prayers were answered. Our son Kyle is now a confident four-year-old who has reached the expected expressive level in his speech in a very short time. He has become a chatter box!

Related Links

Early Effects of the Tomatis Listening Method in Children with ADD By: Liliana Sacarin, PsyD, CC, LMHCA

By: Liliana Sacarin, PsyD, CC, LMHCA  

This is a summary of the research study investigating early effects of the Tomatis Method in children diagnosed with ADD. Improvements in processing speed, phonological awareness, reading efficiency, attention, behavior and brain physiology were hypothesized by the end of Phase 1 of the Tomatis Method intervention. The doctoral dissertation study documents the effects of Phase I of the Tomatis Listening Method of sound stimulation on children with ADD ages 7-13. Of the 25 participants, recruited from schools in the Greater Seattle area, 15 (8 boys and 7 girls) received the Tomatis treatment solely while 10 (9 boys and 1 girl) served as controls (non-Tomatis group) and were stabilized on ADD medication three months prior to and throughout the study. Therefore, the research compared Tomatis intervention versus the non-Tomatis (control) in children with ADD. Although the children in the control group were medicated for ADD, this research did not compare ADD medication treatment with Tomatis intervention. The Tomatis sound stimulation group received 15 consecutive Tomatis sound stimulation sessions of 2 hours each; participants received no additional vestibular or visual-motor exercises, such as swinging or balancing on a balance board, during the listening sessions or other therapies throughout the research. The measures used to capture changes have been standardized for this age range. Results revealed statistically significant improvements for the Tomatis when compared to the control group: children in the experimental group showed statistically significant improvement in processing speed, phonological awareness, phonemic decoding efficiency when reading, behavior, and auditory attention. Information detailing the Tomatis Method, testing instruments and study results is included below.

Read the full testimonial