Therapeutic
Listening:
Cathy Warne has been trained in
Therapeutic Listening, in the USA, by Sheila Frick, the originator of this highly respected concept
and approach.
Listening is the process of
detecting sound, organising and integrating it for use with
information from other senses. Listening
is the key in our overall ability to orient to the people, places
and things that matter in everyday life.
‘Therapeutic listening’ uses
developmental and sensory integration frameworks combined with
organised sound patterns in inherent music, to catalyse emergent
skills. Skills that have
been delayed in people (in some cases into adulthood) can be
progressed significantly with a Therapeutic Listening programme.
This relates to many skills, from core stability (stability
of the trunk and pelvis) enabling easier distal skills such as
improved handwriting and use of knife and fork, to better listening
and visual attention, to improved bladder control.
Anecdotes of the acquisition of skills as a result of this
programme are plentiful and relate to people of all ages from babies
to professional adults.
All the body’s functions are
inter-related. Nerves
that connect to the auditory and vestibular systems in the ear also
connect to locations from the brain to the heart and bowels.
Consequently, auditory treatment can impact all sorts, from
balance to regulation of breathing, and vision to underlying
sporting ability. A
child who has recurrent ear infections is likely to have stiffened
muscles in the part of the ear that becomes infected.
These muscles may need to be ‘exercised’ with the correct
auditory input, to improve modulation of sound input, with an
anticipated resultant impact on improved balance and other
functional ability.
Therapeutic listening can
contribute to the following skill areas:
