| The Tomatis Method |
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| Escrito por Administrator | |||
| Martes 08 de Septiembre de 2009 14:05 | |||
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It all started in Paris, in the era of the 1950’s, when an otolaryngologist, Dr. Alfred Tomatis worked on a series of investigations that led him to create a machine that trains the ear to better process the information it receives. The machine was called the Electronic Ear, and it revolutionized the field of developmental disorders and other areas of the human being. This treatment administered by the Electronic Ear is called the Tomatis Method. The Tomatis Method stimulates the two most important sensory processing systems of the human being, the vestibular and auditory system. Dr.Tomatis viewed them as a single system, not as two separate ones, where one (the vestibular) processes all the movements of the body and the other (the cochlear or auditory) the rapid oscillatory movement produced by sounds. One affects the other in their function and when one is stimulated the other one indirectly stimulates the other. The vestibular system is the primary organizer and most important of all the sensory systems and is responsible for the balance of the body, body image, muscle tone and modulates body movements, including the eyes. It is liable, to a greater or lesser degree, to the skill development of bilateral integration, motor development (fine and gross) and praxis or the planning of a sequence of movements. A child with a vestibular system that registers less than expected sensory information it receives, may display a set of symptoms or behaviors that reflect the dysfunction of the same ,such as: • Constant movement. • Hypotonic. • Difficulties with gross and fine motor skills. • Limited Visual Attention. • Difficulty with visual tracking. • Poor motor planning and often seems clumsy in his movements. By contrast, the child that registers to a greater degree about vestibular information will prevent movements that may present anatomical responses such as dizziness or sweaty hands, especially the circular motions. The cochlear system is part of the scaffolding auditory processing of the individual. The auditory processing involves a number of skills such as decoding or analysis of the auditory message that is received and the ability to selectively attend to a stimulus while ignoring others and the ability to discriminate one sound from another. The ears are responsible for the development of a good attention span and language processing. Also reading and writing skills depend on these two systems as these are part of the symbolic points of language. When an individual presents an auditory processing disorder, it can present a host of symptoms, including hyper-sensitive hearing, attention problems and difficulty with reading and writing, with memory, with the development of speech and language, with the narrative skills, with the concept of temporary or sequence and difficulty to retrieve or access the vocabulary to use at the right time. Hearing is not the same as listening. Hearing is a passive act that involves merely the sensation of sound contrary to listening, which is an act of perception, a willingness to analyze what is heard. Listening and auditory processing, then, are the same skill, which is responsible for staying alert, connecting us with the world around us. The Tomatis Method uses a technology called the Electronic Ear which is used to stimulate the ear to work optimally. The Electronic Ear is intended to train a dysfunctional ear to listen the appropriate way, to process at both the vestibular or auditory maximum level. To accomplish this, it uses music by Mozart, Gregorian chants, the mother’s voice and the voice of the individual. The music of Mozart is gradually filtered, that is, the individual will listen to various predetermined frequencies that are relevant to the needs of the individual according to an evaluation prior to treatment. Low frequencies stimulate the vestibular system (250 - 1000hrz), the mid-level frequencies stimulate language (1000 - 4000hrz) and above 4000 are the frequencies that charge the brain. Both systems, the vestibular and cochlear act as a communication link between the nervous system and brain for all the sensory stimuli received by the human being, however, as important as the function of sensory processing is, it is the role of feeding or loading the brain with high frequencies of sounds that is the most important. The Tomatis Method does not help a person to hear better, but to listen better, to process better. In this regard, the majority of children and youth with developmental disorders can benefit from the Tomatis auditory method, such as children with learning disabilities, dyslexia, attention issues, processing issues, hearing, speech and language problems, autism, pervasive disorder, Asperger Syndrome and sensory integration difficulties. For over 50 years there had been made and are continuing to conduct research that confirms the effectiveness of the Tomatis Method. Currently, the Tomatis Method uses the most advanced and comprehensive of all the auditory stimulation programs. All these have emerged after the Tomatis Method, which is the pioneer in this field and others seek to imitate it. The Tomatis Method is a non-invasive therapy, which does not use any chemicals or drugs. The Tomatis Method is a hopeful therapy (newspaper, El Nuevo Día, 4/11/05) and is the Sound of Hope (newspaper, Primera Hora, 3/24/06). Our center opened its doors in 2004 as the first center to bring the Tomatis Method to Puerto Rico. We designed a model similar to the Spectrum Center, a global pioneer in combining sensory integration with the Tomatis Method. However, we have taken a step forward by integrating, as well, speech and language therapy techniques, the Linda-Mood Bell program for developing reading and writing skills, among others. Our Center strives to provide the best of service, quality and excellence for our clients. It is an onward and upward progress of making every second count in their treatment The Director, Nellie Torres is a Speech and Language Pathologist with over 26 years of experience and licensed to practice in Puerto Rico and the U.S., certified by the American Association of Speech Pathologists and Audiologists (ASHA) and trained at the Spectrum Center, at the time in Bethesda, Maryland, by Valerie Dejean, who received her training directly from Dr. Alfred Tomatis. She was certified by Tomatis Developpement in Luxembourg. She writes in cooperation with local newspapers and lectures in and outside of Puerto Rico. She is known in her profession to be a pioneer in Puerto Rico to bring the approach of miofunctional therapy, oral motor skills and narrative skills. She has been honored as one of the distinguished women of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, for her contributions in areas related to developmental disorders in individuals. Our mission is to provide a trans-disciplinary therapy program that significantly impacts the development of those receiving the Tomatis Method. The Centro Tomatis of Puerto Rico has developed the most comprehensive, intensive and unique treatment throughout all Puerto Rico which integrates most of the areas of development in the difficulties found in the pre-program assessment. The Tomatis Method is an auditory stimulation program that uses a machine called the electronic ear to stimulate the middle ear, the vestibular system, the cochlea and the temporal lobe. The basic treatment of the Tomatis method consists of 3 intensive stages two hours a day: fifteen (15) days and two of eight (8) days each and a number of Boosters (3 of eight days each) during the first year of treatment. During the first stage many children fall asleep or cry. However, this does not affect the treatment because this is the passive phase in which the ear and brain are working and the child does not need to be aware or to participate. During the two remaining phases it will help the child or adult to attend the most important phase: the active. As it introduces the use of a microphone and the child reads or speaks to stimulate the ear and brain by their voice while the music is still present. By the first day of each stage, parents must complete a questionnaire in order to know how the program is helping the child. Then at the end of each phase they will have a brief meeting with each parent. During the two hours that children are receiving auditory stimulation, they also receive a variety of multi-sensory stimulation as follows: 1. Sensory Integration 2. Arts & Craft for fine motor skills 3. Speech and Language Therapy 4. Visual Therapy 5. Gymnastics for the brain “Brain Gym" 6. Narrative 7. Technical Program for Lindamood-Bell reading. These are introduced depending on the condition, diagnosis and age of the individual. The electronic ear emits music of Mozart filtered slowly up 9000Hz on a volume average. Also, listen in to Gregorian chants, and in some cases, depending on the program, the mother's voice filtered to 9000Hz to simulate how the children did hear in the womb. Tomatis said that dysfunction of listening skills, in many cases, started in the womb. Then we recreate this moment to go back to the beginning of the problem and re-stimulate. These two hours are divided into four sessions of 30 minutes each. Any parent or adult who receives the method must complete daily observations from the second day of treatment. These forms are placed at the counter of the reception. Each parent or adult should note from the first day any change (positive or negative) and record or report that change. These observations are important in determining whether modifications to the program of auditory stimulation and / or therapy strategies are needed. The Tomatis Method is not a substitute for therapies that were recommended or being taken before by the individual, but makes them more flexible to accelerate the training program and in many cases significantly shortening the time for them. In addition, areas that are slow to respond to the stimulation of a traditional therapy or in some cases not even answer those therapies can in a relatively short time by stimulated by the Tomatis method. Around the world are daily reports showing surprising results using the Tomatis Method. Puerto Rico is part of that global movement ... with a sound of hope. Requirements to begin treatment with the Tomatis Method: • Separate space (date and time) to $ 250.00. • Complete History of the Child on the questionnaire. • Initial interview with Mrs. Nellie Torres, Director. It is necessary to bring the child. • Photo 2 x 2 • Copies of the evaluation reports of speech-language and occupational therapy (one year or less). • Listening Skills Assessment - is done in our center and has a cost of $ 120.00. It is administered before and after each phase for a total of 6 times but only paid once. For children who are not able to administer this test, parents complete a questionnaire which will provide the information required by the program through a computer graphic. In these cases the client is billed $ 30.00 instead of $ 120.00. Program: A. The Tomatis Method B. Sensory Stimulation, Language Stimulation A. The Tomatis Method - consists of 110 hours of listening therapy B. In addition, during the two hours that the individual is receiving the listening therapy, an integrated program with language and sensory stimulation is introduced depending on the condition, diagnosis or age of the individual. The program also includes sensory vestibular, tactile, proprioceptive, visual and motor stimulation. A program for the development of speech and language may include: 1) Pre-linguistic skills for nonverbal children. 2) Increase or develop communication attempts. 3) Increased receptive and expressive vocabulary 4) Development of language structure 5) Children's oral narrative 6) Pragmatic or social skills 7) Brain Gym for the development of bilateral coordination, reading and writing skills and attention, among other skills. 8) Improving reading skills using techniques of the Lindamood-Bell program. The program will start reading from syllabic to stories and the understanding of them. 9) A program of oral-motor therapy techniques for the diagnosis of apraxia of speech in children 10) A program to increase the visual processing 11) Auditory processing program (The Central Auditory Processing Kit) 12) Fine motor skills 13) Behavior modification techniques 14) Critical thinking games to develop logical and deductive thinking. 15) Meetings with the Director or the clinical Supervisor of the Center at the beginning of each phase where parents report on their child's progress and any doubts that may arise during treatment can be discussed. 16) A meeting at the end of each phase with the director or the clinical supervisor of the Center to present a progress note report made by the therapist that attends the child with recommendations for follow-up at home. 17) Daily monitoring of each child through daily notes written by the parents 18) Detailed monitoring of skill development through a questionnaire which the parents complete. Treatment Schedules We have three sectional hours for treatment at San Juan: - 1:00 to 3:00 pm - 3:00 to 5:00 pm - 5:00 to 7:00 pm Office hours: Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 pm Besides the Tomatis Method, the Centro Tomatis de Puerto Rico offers many services to our clients such as: • Speech and Language Therapy • Lindamood Bell Program for reading skills • Story Grammar Marker Program (oral and written narrative) • Occupational Therapy • Assessments: Oral Motor, Speech and Language, Occupational, Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Auditory Processing of Language. • Consultations and Conferences We have a professional team which is highly trained and committed to our mission: the progress of our clients. We encourage you to contact us and start getting the benefits of the Tomatis Method. It will be a privilege to bring you the best that we can bring: A Sound of Hope.
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Centro Tomatis de Puerto Rico tiene el programa de tratamiento más abarcador, intensivo y único de todo Puerto Rico.
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