Why Aren't I Learning?

About the Author

Rafaele Joudry was educated in England and Canada where she completed a Bachelor of Social Work before emigrating to Australia. A strong interest in learning and child development fuelled her work in preschool education and family services before she founded Sound Therapy International in 1989.

She has since dedicated herself to research and public education on the subject of child development, environmental health and ear/brain function. As a leading Australian speaker and author she pioneered the groundbreaking technology of Sound Therapy, which she has brought to thousands of families around the world.

What's Inside?

This book is full of practical easy tips to help parents and teachers to facilitate children's learning

Learn how to

• Handle temper tantrums, antisocial behaviour and aggression
• Use Sound Therapy, a simple, effective program for parents to use at home
• Help your children settle down, sleep well, and be calm and focussed
• Stimulate brain connections so listening and learning become easier
• Set your child up for good language skills and improve reading, writing and spelling
• Use drug free, non-invasive methods to help children concentrate and learn
• Make study and homework easy and fun
• Create a nurturing, gentle sound environment for your babies and children
• Use sensory integration therapies
• Assist development and integration of the senses including auditory, visual, tactile, movement and balance
• Use movement and balance activities to improve proprioceptive and vestibular function

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Not another Tantrum!

A mother's love; Fathers care too; A note on language; Why this book?; Educational tools and Sound Therapy; Who this book is for; Research partnership; Does my child need therapy?; Which chapters should I read?; Living with a 'different' child; You are not alone; Common behaviours; The sensory integration premise; The behavioural view; The mechanistic view; The integrative/organic view; Make up your own mind; Practical action tips.

Chapter 2: Baby in the womb: The miracle of language

The ear; When does the foetus hear?; What does it sound like in the womb? Sonic Birth; High frequencies; Sing to your baby; A mother who sings to her child; How is it that we speak?; Practical action tips.

Chapter 3: Listening is the road to learning

But my child is not deaf; Closing the ear; Listening; The Tomatis effect; Speech; Ear; Hearing loss; Understanding; High frequencies; Left brain Right brain; The elements of listening; Practical action tips.

Chapter 4: Sound Therapy: a home based listening program for children

What it does; Sound Therapy for general developmental issues; How to identify a potential listening problem; History; Conditions Sound Therapy may help; Auditory processing; Establishing right-ear dominance; ADHD; Dyslexia; Speech development; Autism spectrum disorders; Down syndrome; Bed-wetting; Other conditions; For parents; You don't have to have a problem; How to use Sound Therapy; Reading aloud exercise; Long-term listening and other treatment; How to use the Sonic Brain Activator; Developing a Sonic Birth program for your child; Why choose the Joudry Sound Therapy method? Practical action tips.

Chapter 5: Learning can be fun

What makes learning fun? School and achievement; Singing and rhyming; Learning to read; Non-readers; Literature immersion; Liaising with teachers; Repeating a grade; Television; Brain development in Primary Years; We read with our ears; Neural plasticity and wholeness; The story of Rebecca; Myth, story and narrative; Building on strengths; Learning prerequisites; How music supports wholeness; Simplicity and complexity; Specialisation; Practical action tips.

Chapter 6: We move with our ears: sensory integration

The pioneers; Development of the central nervous system; Motor sensory development; The senses; Sensory integration therapy; Does my child have Sensory Integration Dysfunction?; Points for Diagnosis; Hyper or hypo; Identifying particular sensory disorders; Examples of how the internal senses affect everyday skills; The effect of a disorder of the proprioceptive sense; The vestibular sense; The effect of a disorder of the vestibular sense; Possible causes of Sensory Integration Disorder; Integrated treatment programs; How to find a sensory integration therapist; The role of vision in learning; Chiropractic; Practical action tips.

Chapter 7: Not another label!

Don't delay; The history of labels; Spectrums; Central Auditory Processing Disorder - CAPD; Speech problems; Dyslexia; Laterality; ADHD - Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder; ADHD diagnosis; The cause; Gifted children; High achievers; Solutions for ADHD; Autism; Down syndrome; Fragile X Syndrome; Cerebral palsy; Epilepsy; Practical action tips.

Chapter 8: Listeners' experiences with Sound Therapy

Help for Primary children; Help for disadvantaged teenagers; Posture pick up; Let's Recite; Drug-free and smarter; Longer sentences; Accident recovery; Calm at last!; Mellow and happy; Those tapes are making me smarter!; Schizophrenia is not for life; Dental cold turkey; Nightmares away; Computer fatigue; Grades climbing; In my own words; Now he's speaking; Hey I can read!; Goodbye epilepsy!; A natural solution for ADHD; Interviews with families using Sound Therapy; Leaps and bounds in language; Healthier immunity - better focus; Wrestling with hearing loss; The day the earth stopped moving; Less family conflict; We feel like we've got a little girl; You can see a light go on; Gratified Grandmother; Sound Therapy helps counteract violence in Columbia.

Chapter 9: What's this on my plate? Living naturally

Nutrition; What children eat today is horrifying; Indicators that diet may help; Which countries are looking into diet; Diet is too hard; Getting children to eat; Kids like discipline; Order of sensitivies; Additives to look out for; MSG Monosodium glutamate; Are there carcinogens in your bathroom?; Foods to watch out for; Do it early and get it right!; Clutching at straws; The 'few foods' diet; Hypoglycaemia; Controlling insulin with food; Supplements; An Intolerance is not an allergy; Reaction time; Benefits; Coping tricks; No more Ritalin; Excess antibiotics; The autonomic nervous system; Covering up the evidence; Upper or downer; Are the drugs dangerous?; What are the side effects?; Protecting your baby from toxic and dangerous interventions; Ultrasound; The vexed question of vaccination; Our choices; Practical action tips.

Chapter 10: Research: the brain and Sound Therapy

Brain research; Is it the ear or the brain? Definitions; Dyslexia source and symptoms; Research into Sound Therapy for Learning Difficulties; Canadian Studies; South African Studies; Studies on laterality; Studies on stuttering; Studies on Anxiety and Depression; Studies on Mentally Retarded People; Studies using Joudry Tapes; The rewards of research; Nurturing the ear.

Chapter 11: Conclusion

The integrated brain; Three models for learning difficulties; A Sensory conclusion; Sense for the future.

Excerpts from the Introduction

Learning is the most important activity our children undertake in preparation for their lives as adults, when we hope they will be able to contribute to the community in ways which fulfil their potential. Yet today it seems that more and more children are beset by learning difficulties, which means they struggle and fail, where they should be progressing with natural ease. Teachers are dismayed at how to teach a class when several children with ADHD are making it impossible for anyone to concentrate.

Parents are anxious to see if their children perform to the required standards, and when they don't, are thrown into the desperate hunt for solutions, hoping they will find a way that their child can catch up to the normal level.

Throughout recent history a number of inspired doctors and other practitioners have made links between various fields of endeavour, and have come up with methods which restore natural function and ability to the parts of the brain and the senses where they are needed. One of the methods which most effectively addresses the issues of integration and function to assist learning is Sound Therapy, based on the work of Dr Alfred Tomatis.

Brilliant in his time, Tomatis did not fully understand how his method worked. Only now, with more advanced neurological knowledge, are we truly beginning to understand the mysteries of the inner ear system and how integral it is to our ability to learn. As we follow this path, mysteries are revealed which explain many areas of functioning - perception, expression, thinking and being. Sound Therapy opens the curtain which other approaches to learning leave drawn.

This book is about the rich and intricate connection between the ear and learning. In it we explore the different functions of the ear including:

• Hearing, balance, spatial orientation and the ear's role in sensory integration.
• The ear's ability to transform the vibrations we call 'sound' into meaningful and beneficial stimuli.
• The role of the ear in prenatal, developmental neurology.
• The role of the ear in relation to language, evolving consciousness, the sense of the ´other´, and the early budding of our desire to communicate.

All our senses - sight, touch, taste, balance, movement, internal body-awareness and hearing - play an essential role in learning. We will look at how ear function is interlocked with, and fundamental to, our other senses and the whole, marvellous learning process.

Addressing the correct development and integration of the senses is a natural and supportive way to improve functioning and learning capacity for all children. Bringing this awareness into our child-care and education systems could serve to prevent a great many problems from developing in the first place. Therefore I hope that this information will be used, for prevention, by all families who wish to help their children be the best they can be.

On a practical day-to-day level, the book gives easy action tips and an understanding of many resources which parents or practitioners will be able to access easily in their community, or apply themselves in homes and practices.