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According to
the definition given by William James, attention is "the taking
possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of
what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of
thought"
Accordig to this
definition, attention, contrary to what is commonly believed, is
not a unitary process, but can be divided into several
dimensions over each of which the Tomatis method can have a
positive action, namely:
This corresponds first of all to
a general state of alertness which must be
sufficiently high so that the nervous system can be receptive
to any form of information reaching it.
Secondly, it corresponds to
sustained attention and to vigilance, in
other words the ability to maintain a certain level of
alertness following a mental effort.
The action of the Tomatis method on this aspect of attention
is based on what Tomatis called the
"energization" or "dynamogenic"
function of the ear.
This concerns children or adults who cannot
remain concentrated for sufficiently long periods on a given
task, even if, moreover, this task requires little
intellectual effort and presents a routine or familiar
character (for example a revision or recopying task for a
child).
This is therefore at the same
time the ability
to resist distraction and to discriminate between information
which is appropriate and which is not appropriate.
The effect the Tomatis method has on this form of attention is
designed to help people who can be described as
distracted and who suffer from frequent lapses in attention
which can entail confusions of meaning. Here, the
Tomatis method typically addresses the pupil who is always "on
the moon" and cannot correctly filter the information which he
or she has to process.
A particular modality of selective attention is divided
attention which is the ability to share one's
attention between several sources of information or tasks to
be performed. When this modality of attention which
is very taxing on a cognitive level is lacking, it
constitutes a source of difficulty or considerable suffering
for the child in a school situation who is constantly faced
with the need to perform several tasks at the same time, as
for example to write down a sentence while listening to the
teacher.
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