The Listening Centres

The Listening Therapy and Deafness

Whether it is a mild or severe deafness, affecting a child of a very early age or an adult, a hearing impairment (or deafness) must be treated with a great input of energy in order to avoid any withdrawal process which can lead to severe communication problems.

Much progress has been acheived in the 80's to increase or stabilize hearing disorders. Among them, the use of the Electronic Listening Device of Dr Alfred Tomatis has produced for some cases some very significant results.

The basic principle of this technique is to allow the inner ear to function at its full potential, thanks to the change of the filters of the Electronic Listening Device which stimulate the muscles of the middle ear, in particular the stirrup muscle.

This sort of "gymnastics" stimulates the labyrinth via both the vestibular system (utricle, semicircular canals, sacculus) and the cochlear system. The stimulation of the vestibular apparatus is of great importance because it activates all the muscles of the body, especially the facial ones. In lip reading, the role of the V and VII cranial nerves which innervate parts of the ear and of the mouth-pharynx system is very important in the language comprehension.

The movement of the lips has to follow some specific articulation patterns making possible the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants. The head control, the verticality of the trunk and a right laterality are also stimulated by this technique which includes the whole body as the instrument of communication.

The sensory-motor integrators that Dr Alfred Tomatis has described, enables us to understand the role of the vestibular - cochear system in the linguistic integration.

The stimulation of the ear, middle ear and inner ear, allows a stimulation of the whole nervous system.