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Dawn
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 6:21am | IP Logged
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Does anyone know anything about this type of sensory therapy? My 4 yo with PDD-NOS is using it at his OT sessions and now it has been recommended we do this with him at home too.
It basically involves having him wear headphones that play electronically altered music for up to 1/2 hour 2 x a day (no mean feat with my boy). The music is supposed to affect his vestibular-cochlear function and treat some of his sensory-processing disorder.
I'm still very foggy on it all (most of what I just said I copied directly off the fact sheet they gave us), but willing to do whatever will help. There is a parents information night coming up next month. Just thought I'd ask here for any opinions or information. Thanks. 
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Taffy
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 11:14am | IP Logged
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Dawn,
We've done several types of A.I.T. (Auditory Integration Therapy) with my oldest ds who has PDD-NOS and are currently using The Listening Program. We do it primarily because my son has hypersensitive hearing. We aren't sure of the specific sound but there are times where he will have his hands over his ears and run away even though there doesn't seem to be any loud sounds in the area. Another response he has to sounds is to simply "turn his ears off". It makes him appear to be deaf and we have had instances where people have simply assumed him to be deaf because of his lack of responsiveness to someone speaking to him. We are hoping to improve his hypersensitive hearing so that he's able to tolerate the sounds that bother him and we are also hoping to improve his responsiveness to people who are trying to speak to him. Sorry about the long explanation, just wanted to let you know our reasons in case yours are different.
We first tried the Berard Method of A.I.T., two weeks of listening to attenuated music at a facility with the right kind of sound equipment, twice a day for 30 minutes each time. No major changes noted - he seemed a bit calmer but has always been a pretty even-tempered sort.
We then went through the Fast ForWord program with some success. I'm sure that his receptive language improved as did his reading ability. He showed some improvement to understanding the spoken word but still had very poor comprehension (he understood single words well but stringing them into a sentence would confuse him).
We've gone through both levels of the Earobics program. Level one didn't show any significant changes but level 2 showed significant improvement in his auditory memory and verbal comprehension.
We looked seriously at the Vital Links program which, I'm guessing, is what you're OT is using Dawn. Unfortunately, we live in the middle of nowhere so accessing it would involve some serious commuting time.  I'll be interested in hearing how it helps your son. 
We decided to use The Listening Program because of the research (found at the website) showing improved tolerance to sound. Also, we would own the discs, could do it at home, and would be able to repeat the program whenever ds needed a "reboot"  . We're on our third week now and so far, not much improvement in sound tolerance but he's starting to read books that require more comprehension on his own again and is responding well to verbal directions. Previously, the books he would gravitate to during his free time were of the preschool variety (he's 9). He's now reading grade 1 level books (sorry for the grade reference  ) on his own for his own enjoyment and we're getting better narrations. I'm not sure how much of this to attribute to the "Listening Program" but am grateful for it.
The "Listening Program" takes about 20 weeks for a single "treatment". If you like, I'll post our observations at that time. And if you want to ask anything else, feel free to PM me.
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Dawn
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 7:14pm | IP Logged
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Taffy, thank you so much for your thoughtful and thorough reply.
I would love to hear how your son's treatment works out. It is so uplifting for me to talk with other mothers of spectrum children, even if our kids are dealing with different issues. We're all in a similar boat.
It will be interesting to see if this helps our son in any way. He doesn't seem to be bothered by noise ~ although he hates being sung to. He does have delayed expressive, and to a lesser degree, delayed receptive, speech. He can be hyper, stubborn and show quite a temper. He's not great at listening, sitting still or taking direction. His OT is trained in this therapy and feels it will help him, so we are going with her opinion. I just sent off the order for the headphones to use at home.
Taffy wrote:
| And if you want to ask anything else, feel free to PM me. |
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Thank you so much, Taffy. I will let you know how it goes for us. God bless you and your son as you work together on his treament.
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys
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aussieannie
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| Posted: May 25 2006 at 12:27am | IP Logged
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Dear Dawn,
I hope I am not bumbling into this discussion, suggesting things that do not pertain to your situation, since I must say that I am not personally familiar with this particular condition.
If I am - please forgive me and ignore this.
The reason why I have twigged at all is that I belong to a Gregorian Chant Schola. An adult member there has dyslexia and I would say that as a child, from the way she relates her childhood, that there may have been linking disorders.
She is not Catholic at all, she loves the chant due to the fact her mother had discovered a program that used the Gregorian Chant for her existing problems, I believe that she benefitted from it. I think that the program they followed is explained at this site:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/T OMATIS.html
We play gregorian chant during our schooling due to it's extraordinary and unique benefits to the brain the chant offers.
May be this program that you are starting can be supplimented with the chant?
As a Catholic it is good to think that it could be of help and that it also would support the environment of the 'domestic church' in the home.
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Dawn
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| Posted: May 25 2006 at 5:02am | IP Logged
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Anne, thank you for your reply. I'm glad you mentioned gregorian chant. I actually have been trying to play more music at home, so far mainly classical, as I think it must be, on some level, helpful for him to be hearing it. All of us benefit from it really! Just before Easter I bought a CD called Cathedral Dreams that I find particularly soothing. I couldn't get the link you mentioned to work, but in the meantime, I will search the boards here for chant suggestions (I think there was a thread a while back).
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aussieannie
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| Posted: May 25 2006 at 5:40am | IP Logged
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Yes, I couldn't make that link work either - I think it is because the t and o in tomatis was somehow apart! So here is that link again:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/T OMATIS.html
(when I previewed my post this keeps separating!  So if you put tomatis in the search engine you will probably see this address listed amongst it all)
Plus also there is the main website for this: www.tomatis.com and it does mention PDD in it's list.
I checked out your link to Cathedral Dreams - the listing looks lovely! (I will go back and listen to some of the samples) I KNOW I have a weakness for buying good books and I am sure that I could easily be the same for beautiful, religious music and chant if I really got going!
My choir master has the most impressive and enormous range of chant cds I have ever seen! When you enter his house the chant wafts through his house like perfume......soooooo relaxing, soooo transporting!
I reckon my youngest, Michael (18months) has been spoilt in this department, he would have heard the gregorian chant in the home during the day, every week with me singing it at practise and then the chanting it at Mass in utero from the very beginning and right to the very end as I played the chant through the whole of his labour, and ever since of course! 
It has to be good for the children, a love of sacred music - I think of my childhood and the seventies songs I loved because they reminded me of home and particularly of my father(now deceased) and they really put me into a 'beautiful time bubble' whenever I hear them, but there was nothing special musically about those songs as such- then I think of children having that same association to the chant because it has always been a part of their life since they can remember!
I will try to get some good recommendations from him (for myself too!)- and if I do I will send them through.
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tracym
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| Posted: May 26 2006 at 6:24am | IP Logged
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Hi. We have done/are doing a listening therapy for my 9 year old. I had hm evaluated last year at 8 and while we couldn't afford OT, she and I talked and we figured we could try this at least. We had to buy the headphones(which were about 100.00) and then we can borrow the cds for free from her. We keep the cds for 2/3 weeks and then my ds listens to the music. We do it a tnight and generally he does not wear the headphones. She said it can be done without them but the effect is supposed to be better with the headphones on. As he has sensory issues this is a struggle. Anyways I have seen improvements in him-it seems to help calm him, sleep has improved and i have seen improvements in other areas also. I don't know how much to contribute to the music but I do know when we stopped for a few months at the end of summer I saw behaviors that had been doing better back. We started up again around January and things have improved. He listens to it several times a week. I fiugure it is a small investment and can't hurt him so it is worth it. Hope this helps some.
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Dawn
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| Posted: May 27 2006 at 5:35am | IP Logged
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Tracy, thank you very much for your response. It sounds like you are doing the same therapy my son will be starting. The headphones were about that much and we can rent the CDs for 2 weeks (at $10 a pop ). He will wear the headphones for his OT so it will be interesting to see if he'll do it for us at home. We plan to try using an MP3-something-or-other (I don't know the jargon, dh does) which is much smaller than a CD walkman which he would have to wear a tune belt for.
I'm so glad to hear the therapy has helped your son. I'll keep you posted on our experience too.
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Taffy
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| Posted: Jan 23 2007 at 8:33pm | IP Logged
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Well, I did say that I'd post our results, even if it is a bit late.
It's at my blog if you're interested.
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benedicta
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Dear Dawn,
Though I am unaware of the program you mentioned, I'd like to suggest something (simple....and maybe not even helpful to you and your DS) that was quite effective with one of my sons who suffers from epilepsy and bipolar disorder: Mozart! Even when he was tiny (he's 14 now), he would calm very quickly whenever I played Mozart. In fact, several times, it helped "ease" him out of a seizure. I suspect that Gregorian Chant would have worked equally well.
God bless you in your parenting journey! It can be so difficult (albeit rewarding!) to find exactly the right help for your special-needs child!
pax,
Renee
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Theresa
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Dawn, did you ever decide to use this? We tried it with Andrew at OT a couple of times and we had to change the music portion because it had an icky effect on him, he was spinning in circles, not eating and the sleeping ended up being worse. We tried a different slection for a few weeks but in the end we decided against using this and instead started playing the Bible on cd at night, a children's version. I just did not feel peace about using it although I know others have used it with success, we chose not to. We decided we would rather play the Word and have that working in his life instead.
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: Therapeutic Listening
