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Listening Programs
Listening programs have been seeing positive results for decades;
however, most of the programs have been in Europe. Today, the number
of programs and practitioners is growing in the U.S. for the simple
reason that listening programs deliver significant results for a broad
variety of problems. These empirical results are supported by the
studies below, and the STAR center in Denver, Colorado is initiating
more research under the auspices of Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR.
NOTE: The "Tomatis Method," as mentioned in some of the research
below, refers to a method of auditory stimulation developed by Dr.
Alfred Tomatis. In 1992, Dr. Ron Minson, a student of Dr. Tomatis,
founded DLS with the purpose of developing a listening system which
utilizes the most recent advances in psychoacoustic technology. The
DLS equipment now differs from the Tomatis equipment; however, the
method and audio techniques are intimately connected to the pioneering
work of Dr. Tomatis.
- The Effects of The Tomatis Method of Auditory Stimulation on
Auditory Processing Disorder: A Summary of Findings (2005)
Deborah Ross-Swain Ed.D., CCC Speech-Language Pathologist
The study's purpose is to determine the efficacy of the Tomatis
Method of auditory stimulation as a therapeutic intervention for
Auditory Processing Disorders (APD). 41 subjects (18 females, 23
males; 4.3 to 19.8 years old) were evaluated for A.P.D. All subjects
demonstrated improvement with skills of immediate auditory memory,
auditory sequencing, interpretation of directions, auditory discrimination
and auditory cohesion. Results are significant, e.g. an average
improvement in overall auditory processing skills of 49.93%. Click
Here to Read the Study
- Early Intervention: A Longitudinal Study of Reading and Reading
Related Achievement of Students in Kindergarten Through Second Grade
Enrolled in the Alpha Program (2006)
Prepared by J. Anne Calhoun, Ph. D. Educational Psychology Department
of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies College of Education,
University of New Mexico
In this study 36 subjects were evaluated before and after a unique
combination of interventions, including DLS. Average reading gain
for the 36 children over the 3-month intervention was 2 years. Click
here to read a summary of the study.
- Hillside Health Center Ongoing Study (2006)
Data collected by Harry Armytage (Center Director Maxwell Fravall,
O.D.)
This data summary covers 4 aspects of auditory performance affected
by DLS programs: visual/auditory processing speed, selectivity,
auditory digit span, and right-ear dominance. The sample size ranges
from 30-46 subjects; results are significant, e.g. average improvement
of 78% in auditory processing, and average improvement of 81% in
selectivity (phonetic differentiation) after programs lasting 3-5
months. Click
here to read the data summary.
- The Efficacy of the Tomatis Method for Children with learning
and communication disorders: a meta-analysis. Gilmore, Tim
(1999)
Published in the International Listening Journal, 1999
A meta-analysis is a specific type of research, which examines previously
completed research studies. This meta-analysis looks at 5 studies
of Tomatis-based auditory stimulation remediation. The analysis,
involving a total of 231 children, concluded that the remediation
significantly improves linguistic skills, psychomotor skills, personal
and social adjustment skills, auditory skills, and cognitive skills.
Click here to read
the study.
- Internal Study by the Tomatis Center in Toronto, Canada
Parents of 400 children who completed their auditory stimulation
program were interviewed. The children all had well-documented histories
of learning problems, as well as a pattern of under-achievement
on psycho-educational tests. In this study, 95% of the parents responded
that the program had helped their child. Improvements occurred in:
communication abilities, attention span, frustration tolerance,
reading comprehension, speech quality, memory, spelling, and maturity.
- Research on Therapeutic Listening is in progress. Further information
and case studies are available at www.vitallinks.net
DIR/Floortime
- Can Children with Autism Master the Core Deficits and Become
Empathetic, Creative and Reflective? A 10-15 Year Follow-Up of a
Subgroup of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Who Received
a Comprehensive Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based
(DIR) Approach (2005)
Serena Weider, Ph.D. and Stanley Greenspan, M.D.
A follow-up study of 16 children diagnosed with an autistic
spectrum disorder (ASD) revealed that with the DIR/Floortime approach,
a subgroup of children with ASD can become empathetic, creative,
and reflective, with healthy peer relationships and solid academic
skills. This suggests that some children with ASD can master the
core deficits and reach levels of development formerly thought unattainable
with a family-oriented approach that focuses on the building blocks
of relating, communicating, and thinking. Click
here to download the study
- Developmental Patterns and Outcomes in Infants and Children
with Disorders in Relating and Communicating: A Chart Review of
200 Cases of Children with Autistic Spectrum Diagnoses (1997)
Serena Weider, Ph.D. and Stanley Greenspan, M.D.
Charts of 200 children who were diagnosed with autistic spectrum
disorder were reviewed. The goal of the review was to reveal patterns
in presenting symptoms, underlying processing difficulties, early
development, and response to intervention in order to generate hypotheses
for future studies. The chart review suggests that a number of children
with autistic spectrum diagnoses are, with an appropriate intervention
program, capable of empathy, affective reciprocity, creative thinking,
and healthy peer relationships; that an intervention approach that
focuses on individual differences, developmental level, and affective
interaction may be especially promising; and that there are different
underlying processing patterns with a difficulty in connecting affect
and sequencing capacities as a possible common denominator. This
review also suggests that difficulties with relating and intimacy
are often secondary to underlying processing disturbances. Many
of the children can become quite loving and caring, thoughtful and
creative, suggesting a need to change the criteria for diagnosing
these disorders. Click
here to read a summary of the study
- Additional Research Support: http://www.floortime.org/ft.php?page=Research%20Support
Interactive Metronome
- The Impact of Synchronized Metronome Tapping Treatment on School
Achievement: A Report of Two Preliminary Investigations (2005)
Taub, Gordon, PH.D Presented at the Learning & the Brain Conference
at Harvard, Appending Publication
The results from both studies indicated that the IM treatment
group demonstrated large significant improvements in their timing
ad rhythm perception and performance. On average, the IM treatment
subjects demonstrated approximately 50% greater performance levels
in timing and rhythm over control subjects. Click
here to read summary of the study.
- Effect of Interactive Metronome Rhythmicity Training on Children
with ADHD (2001)
Schaffer, R.J., Jacokes, L.E., Cassily, J.F., Greenspan, S.I.,
Tuchm;an, R.F., Stemmer, Jr.,P.J. Published in the American Journal
of Occupational Therapy
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 9 to 12-year-old boys
diagnosed with ADHD found those undergoing IM treatment showed significant
patterns of improvement in attention, coordination, control of aggression/impulsivity,
reading and language processing.
- Timing in Child Development (1999)
Kulhman, K., Schweinhart, L.J., High/Scope Educational Research
Foundation
A correlation study of 585 children in a public school district
found significant correlations between IM score and academic performance
in reading, mathematics, language, science, social studies, and
study skills. The researchers concluded that timing and rhythmicity
play a foundational role in the cognitive processes underlying performance
in these academic areas.
- Academic Fluency Study
More than 1500 middle and high school students were pre-tested
using selected subtests of the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ III) standardized
test. The students then received 12 one-hour sessions of IM. When
the IM treatment was complete, the students were post-tested using
the same subtests of the WJ III. Analysis of the aggregate results
showed statistically significant increases in students grade equivalent
(GE) performances in reading fluency (increased by 2.25) and math
fluency (increased by 1.7).
Earobics
- Chicago Public Schools, Illinois - Spring, 2000
After using Earobics for only 12 weeks, 12,000 students in grades
pre-K through three achieved dramatic, statistically significant
gains in phonemic awareness, decoding, and spelling, with some grades
showing more than a full year's gain.
- Polk County, Florida: Stanford-9 Assessment - Spring, 2001
After implementing Earobics Literacy Launch as a supplement
to the core literacy program, (Open Court or SFA), first grade classrooms
in five Title I schools in Polk County, Florida, achieved significantly
greater gains on the Stanford-9 assessment than did first grade
classrooms in 36 TItle I schools who used the core reading program
alone.
- Culver City Unified School District, Culver City, CA - Spring,
2001
First grade students at El Rincon Elementary achieved statistically
significant improvements on the Basic Phonic Skills Test and the
Reading Accuracy and Fluency Test after receiving instruction with
Earobics Literacy Launch.
- Spring Branch Independent School District, Texas - Spring,
2001
Kindergarteners achieved statistically significant improvements
in Letter Identification, Concept of Print, Word Recognition, Writing
Vocabulary, Dictation, and Text Read after using Earobics in their
classrooms 3-5 times per week.
Fast ForWord
- Access to reading: The language to literacy link.
Paper presented at the Learning Disabilities Association Conference.
Burns, M.S. (1999)
- Modification of auditory temporal processing thresholds in
language-based learning disabled children.
Paper presented at the 1995 Annual Meeting of Society for Neuroscience,
San Diego, CA. Miller, S. L., Jenkins, W. M., Merzenich, M. M.,
& Tallal, P. (1995)
Additional Research Links
http://www.sinetwork.org/research/
http://www.vitallinks.net
http://www.interactivemetronome.com/im/par_add.asp?dsp=6&mn=3&sbm=1
http://www.earobics.com/results/achievement.php
http://www.scilearn.com/results/mainhp
http://www.icdl.com/
http://www.floortime.org
http://www.listeningcentre.com/041articles.html
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