Monday, December 7, 2009

Therapeutic Listening

Two separate occupational therapists have told us about Therapeutic Listening and how is might help our son, so we thought we'd look into it. Our son tends to get upset when he hears sudden loud noises like a hair dryer, coffee grinder, vacuum cleaner, etc. What's interesting is that if we tell him about what we're doing or let him touch the item before it makes noise, he's much calmer. At any rate, we're considering finding a Therapeutic Listening trained therapist to work with our son.

==============
The following information is copied directly from "A brief introduction to Therapeutic Listening":

"Therapeutic Listening coupled with Sensory Integration (SI) tends to speed the emergence of:
- Attention
- Organized behavior
- Self regulation
- Postural control
- Bilateral coordination
- Praxis
- Fine motor control
- Oral motor/articulation
- Social skills
- Communication
- Visual motor integration

What is Therapeutic Listening?

Therapeutic Listening (TL) is an expansion of Sensory Integration. It is an auditory intervention that uses the organized sound patterns inherent in music to impact all levels of the nervous system. Auditory information from Therapeutic Listening CDs provides direct input to both the vestibularand the auditory portions of the vestibular-cochlear continuum. The emphasis of TL is onblending sound intervention strategies with vestibulo-proprioceptive, core development, and breath activities so as to sustain grounding and centering of the body and mind in space and time. Providing these postural, movement, and respiratory activities as part of the TL program is critical. Therapeutic Listening utilizes numerous CDs that vary in musical style, types of filtering, and level of complexity. The music on Therapeutic Listening CDs is electronically altered to elicit the orienting response which sets up the body for sustained attention and active listening."