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What
is the Tomatis Method?
It is a system founded in the
1950s by Alfred Tomatis,
(1920-2001), a French ENT doctor, and which is defined as a
pedagogy of listening.
But
what is listening?
Listening is the ability to use
one's hearing intentionally and attentively, and in a way that
is acceptable on an emotional level, for the purpose of
learning and communicating.
Listening is an action: its implementation implies the ability
to select an acoustic message among others, to inhibit sounds
which are not relevant, to constantly readjust the content and
the form of this message, and to immediately evaluate the
result of this control.
It is therefore a high level cognitive function.
In no case is it to be assimilated to a passive recording of
sound, which would simply depend on the proper working of the
auditory apparatus.
Listening may be
disturbed when the interpretation, on a mental or emotional
level, of the sensorial information on which it is constructed
is flawed. In this case, one speaks of distortions in listening.
These distortions will then be the source of difficulties and
discomfort as much for the child as for the adult, and can
concern all situations of daily life.
The aim of the
Tomatis method is precisely to determine the causes of these
distortions, and to regulate them.
How
do we affect Listening?
The pedagogical or therapeutic
tool of the Tomatis Method is called the Electronic
Ear.
The Electronic Ear is a system
which exploits and reactivates the strategies involved in
perceptive organisation and in the management of sound
environment which the brain is normally able to use when
listening is not disturbed.
But listening will be disturbed when there is a dysfunction of
the two muscles located in the middle ear whose role is to
enable the precise and harmonious integration of acoustic
information into the inner ear, and from there to the brain.
In this case, the brain will put in place a system of
protection, triggering mechanisms which inhibit listening.
Thus, the role
of the Electronic Ear is precisely to restore these two
auditory muscles to their full working ability so as to remove
these mechanisms of inhibition and reactivate a full listening
potential.
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