Therapeutic Listening?

[waiting2bemommy]

Does anyone have any experience with Therapeutic Listening? Ds' OT recommended this program for him....it involves 30 minutes twice a day listening to prerecorded music thr9ough headphones.

I'm trying to understand what this program acomplishes that I couldn't accomplish by having him listen to classical music at bedtime, or something. I'm sure I"m oversinmplifying it, but before investing almost $100 in it, I'd like to figure out how effective it is, and what exactly it's supposed to do. Anyone here tried it?

[Emmeline II]

We do this (I think) but it's with CDs lent to us by ds' OT. It isn't classical music, though it sounds a bit like Muzak.

We don't do headphones; ds' OT said that our surround sound would be fine, though he is older than her typical client receiving this therapy.

EASe CD

http://www.easecd.com/faq.html

A child with auditory hypersensitivity will experience an un-habituated response or reflex to noise sources that neuro-typical individuals would have normally habituated (adjusted) to by their age. It is like the child is experiencing a startle reflex over and over and over again.

 The majority of the time, the music is low pass filtered, resulting in a soft, muted tone. Then randomly, the low pass filter and a second high frequency boost circuit engage together and for a short duration, typically well under 300ms, the sound becomes extremely bright and sharp. Then just as quickly as it came, the sound returns to the original, muted tone.

The site references university studies but I haven't sought them out.

Edited by Emmeline II - 4/30/11 at 8:08am

[blessedwithboys]

Something about the way the music is electronically modified causes it to have a very specific effect on the brain, an effect which can't be accomplished by plain ol' Mozart.  Or so they say...

My ds tried it when he was 4yo but he couldn't tolerate it due to his auditory avoidance issues as well as his tactile hypersensitivity (couldn't deal with the big bulky headphones that are required to be used- no ear bud-style headphones).

[waiting2bemommy]

OK, the explanations definitely make sense....that's more information than the OT gave us....thanks!!!!

anyone seen a good result from it?

I'm a little worried about whether ds is mature enough to tolerate that amount of commitment to the program. Even though we have always had a daily routine, and our routine has been pretty much the same since birth, the only part of it that lasts 30 minutes at one time is bath time. I'm trying to picture myself insisting that he wear these headphones and listen to this specific music twice a day for 30 minutes, and I'm having hard time visualizing that....even though I'm in charge, if he's not cooperative I think it would be pretty hard to achieve the maximum benefits.

[kbins]

We did the program as part of DS's OT work when he was 4.5 and having a lot of trouble regulating his behavior and managing sensory input.

I do think it helped him to "center" and regulate.

I just looked it up in Quicken - The Sonnheiser headphones and 4 CD's cost us $268. I think we did the program for about 6 months. We only did it once a day, during breakfast.

Was it worth it? I think so, but it is hard to figure out how much of the improvement was the regular OT and ST he was doing at the time (4 hours a week), and how much was attributed to the listening therapy we did daily at home.

I will say, now, 2 years later, he is in an inclusion kinder class and handles most sounds quite well. His exceptions are fire alarms and buzzing insects.

ETA: Our program was through vitalsounds (you can find them online to see if there's more info on the 'how' and 'why').

[LynnS6]

We did therapeutic listening with ds. As with the pp, it was a little hard for me to tell how much of his improvement was due to the general OT and brushing and how much was due to the Therapeutic Listening. He did become much much less sound sensitive, so in that respect, I'm glad we did it. You might be able to get the headphones used (they do need to be a specific type -- the Sennheiser ones that are prescribed). I've been actually thinking of asking his OT whether it's worthwhile to have him do a refresher (we've paid for the CDs) since he seems to be getting a bit more sound sensitive these days (he's turning 10 and we haven't done therapeutic listening since he was 7).

The good news about the 30 minutes a day was that our OT encouraged us to have ds do his regular playing while doing it. So, we got a little belt pack for carrying a CD player, and he wore it while he was playing, having his bedtime snack, etc.

Here he is pretending to be a "kitty" while doing his listening (with his little sister right behind him)

[spedteacher30]

I read some of the efficacy studies (I am a graduate student in special education) and couldn't find anything that demonstrated that therapeutic listening has any research/evidence base. The OT, the developmental pediatrician and the regular pediatrician all agreed with me, and therefore, we decided to skip it.

Our son is much less sensitive to sound than he used to be, and my niece has basically outgrown her auditory defensiveness entirely (she is 2 years older than he is).

[aja-belly]

my two year old has a speech delay due (in part) to defensiveness to sounds. most of the time he talks in quiet gurgling sounds but when he's wearing his headset listening to "the listening program" he babbles in just normal sounds and words. even for a little while afterwards he keeps up the outloud babbling and in the two weeks since we started he's gone from 3 words to 8 or 9 words.

[proudmamanow]

We have been doing TL for 2 months now. It hasn't been easy and is expensive but I actually can't say enough good about it. Our dd age 6 is very auditory defensive, it's really her main sensory issue in terms of behaviour, though dyspraxia and proprioceptive stuff are also issues. It has made a huge difference for dd. Some of the changes we have noticed:

-huge decrease in yelling  when bothered by  noises

-likes escalators now (she used to be terrified of them and refused to go on them unless held.

-tolerates going on public transit now (we live in a big city so this is huge)

-fewer meltdowns post exposure to loud sounds. 

-better balance--can now kick bilaterally in swimming and generally tolerates swimming much better (will jump in, for example).

We do a very very specific program that is supervised by our OT, who adjusts the exercises and CDs according to our feedback. We usually try to incorporate: gross motor, particularly core strengthening/balance, fine motor (doing a puzzle or colouring while on a yoga ball, for example), and oral-motor (blowing bubbles, chasing paper with a straw) as this is also a significant issue for dd. We have a stack of suggested activity cards that our OT has provided, and we usually choose some. We also do yoga, hopscotch and on sunny days we have done TL at the park (swings, balance beam).

We have really noticed a big difference in her calm & confidence. She recently moved up to a new bedroom further away from us. I was blending a smoothie recently with her in the kitchen and she said 'that noise used to bother me, it doesn't anymore'

It's a major commitment but we have really noticed huge benefits so far. We are going to do an initial 3 mo block and then take a few months off over the summer and see how she does. She is homeschooled which helps in that we can find the time to fit in 1 hour of therapy each day...

[waiting2bemommy]

thanks for all the detailed feedback!

ds in many ways seems to be a sensory seeker but then in other ways is overly sensitive to certain touches....he startles easily and acts like a kid who's been beat up all the time or something....if I reach out to ruffle his hair he will flinch....he can't stand unexpected touches, even the most playful ones. He hates the noise from the jets that fly overhead all day (we are in a military fly zone) and gets upset about things like a tiny hair on his arm.

It's hard for me to gauge how he's doing because he is so inconsistent in his behaviors....some days go fairly smoothly (well, he's always over active and a bit belligerent, lol) but other days the slightest thing sets him off into a frenzy, sometimes with no apparent cause (no new foods, lack of sleep, etc).

So I'm trying to see how this program will fit in with his needs, since th only auditory thing that stands out to me is the jet noise, and imo hatred of jet noise if farily common for 3 year olds anyway. A lot of kids run screaming and hollering when the planes are going over....they are VERY loud.

most of his issues are proprioceptive, or so I was told. I personally feel that he has regressed in fine motor as well, but since he still performs within the bounds of typical for his age, the OT wasn't terribly concerned. She does however give him "homework" in Handwriting Without Tears.

I have to think about it some more. DP almost had heart failure when he saw the price, but we agreed that we could adjust our budget (read: work extra shifts for a week!!) to cover the cost of it IF and only if it was going to be worth the investment of time, money and stress. Getting ds to cooperate with anything on a regular basis is kind of like playing the lottery. LOL

[LynnS6]

The thing about the therapeutic listening is that it's supposed to work not only on auditory sensitivity (the jets flying over) but also overall vestibular senses and proprioceptive senses. So, if he has a better sense of where his body is in space, then he might be less tense/upset by touches, etc.

That being said, I don't know of any good research to say that it 'works'. We did it because we could borrow the headphones and our insurance covered part of the cost. If we'd have to foot the entire bill, I don't know if I would have.