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Austism, Asperger's Syndrome and Sound Therapy

Autism is a mystifying condition which causes children to become emotionally isolated from the world around them.

Asperger's syndrome is higher functioning autism, meaning the symptoms are milder and the child functions well or above average in many areas of life while still having certain abnormalities in their way of relating to others.

A definite cause of autism or Asperger's syndrome is not known, but a contributing factor is believed to be distortion in the reception of sensory information.

Many children with autism exhibit extreme sensitivity to noise. Some frequencies are actually painful for them to hear. Sound Therapy pioneer Dr Tomatis suggests that, in order to shut out painful sounds or other unwanted stimuli, the child closes down the hearing mechanism so that certain sounds cannot penetrate the consciousness.

On a physiological level, this closing off of the ear is achieved by a relaxation of the muscles of the middle ear. Over time, these muscles lose their tonicity. Sounds are then imprecisely perceived and, as a result, incorrectly analysed.

Tomatis believes that the reluctance of autistic children to communicate results from the closing off of their being to auditory input. Although they may understand what is said to them, they have tuned out many of the frequencies in the sound and have thus tuned out the emotional content of the message.

Why Sound Therapy can help children with Austism

Sound Therapy offers a child with autism the opportunity to re-open the listening capacity. The fluctuating sounds produced by the Electronic Ear gradually exercise and tone the ear muscles, teaching the ear to respond to and recognise the full range of frequencies. As this happens, communication takes on new meanings, and the child begins to respond where before he or she was unreachable.

Tomatis discovered that because of the way the foetal ear develops, the first sounds heard in utero are high frequency sounds. The child hears not only the mother's heartbeat and visceral noises but also her voice. Re-awakening the child's ability to hear high frequencies re-creates this earliest auditory experience and enables emotional contact to be made with the mother first and then with others.

What Sound Therapy has achieved with Autistic children

• They show a greater interest in making contact and communicating with the people around them.
• Interactions with their family members have become more affectionate and appropriate.
• Increased eye contact and the children have a longer attention span.
• Initiate contact rather than waiting to be approached.
• For children without language, vocalisation has increased, initially as screams and then as babbling.
• Children who can speak may develop a more appropriate use of language, e.g. beginning to use more personal pronouns ("I", "you") or first names, and using words to express their feelings.
• They may begin to laugh and cry at appropriate times.
• Once children have begun to emerge from their emotional isolation they have shown increasing responsiveness to what they are being taught and to the people who care for them.

Tips for using Sound Therapy for Autistic children

Both the music and the story CDs are suitable for children with autism or Asperger's Syndrome. For children who can speak, the "Let's Recite" CD in the Family Kit is particularly beneficial, as it gives the child the opportunity to repeat what is said, encouraging participation and vocal expression of the new range of frequencies being heard.

Your child should be encouraged to listen to the Sound Therapy CDs for 30 - 60 minute each day. If it is possible for your child to listen for longer than this each day, that will be even more beneficial.

Learn more about how to use Sound Therapy.

Related research

Badenhorst (1975) investigated the nature of auditory laterality, paying close attention to Tomatis' technique of observing the amount of mobility of facial muscles whilst speaking which provides a further indication of right or left speech-hearing preference.

Badenhorst found that the subjects with a right speech-hearing preference had a better capacity to relate appropriately to emotional stimuli and were more in control of their emotional responses, were more extroverted, and were less prone to anxiety, tension, frustration and aggression.

References

Badenhorst, F.H. (1975). ‘n Rorschachstudie van regssydiges en linkslwsteraars met gemengde laterale voorkeure. Ongepubliseerde M.-graad-skripsie, Potchefstroom Universiteit vir CHO: Potchefstroom.

Van Jaarsveld, P.E. & du Plessis, W.F. (1988). Audio-psycho-phonology at Potchefstroom: a review. South African Journal of Psychology, 18, 136-143.