Orienting, Regulation, and Sensory Modulation
When a child hears an unfamiliar sound there is a drive to locate and identify the sound. This can often result in decreased attention to important information within the environment. This need to identify and locate the sound can result in inattention or participation until the sound is identified. It can also look like a fight or flight response to sound. A benefit of Therapeutic Listening™ to these children is building increased awareness to changes of sound through modified music. The specialized modification to the music builds the child’s ability to decipher sounds to more accurately associate sounds to the related source of the sound so that attention can be focused on locating and attending to the important information being presented within that space. The ability to transition to background and foreground information supports one’s ability to obtain a calm state.
What this might look like:
- Upset, tuned out, or confused in noisy environments
- Difficulty with looking and listening at the same time
- Difficulty shifting attention from background (unimportant sounds) to foreground (important sounds)
- Difficulty matching arousal level with the environment (child is very active in quiet space)
- Poor awareness of body rhythms (sleep, hunger, toileting)
Knowing the Environment and When to Move Within it
When engaging in activities in noisy environments it can make a kid get lost in the noise. Getting lost in the noise is a result of poor auditory processing. This means that the child struggles to identify the important auditory information from the non-important background sounds.
Therapeutic Listening™ aides in building auditory processing skills by using modification in music and changes in frequency to build the child’s ability to identify and attend to the important sounds within the environment. When a child is able to filter auditory information they are able to shift attention to important information.
Example: Shifting attention to a teacher giving instructions in a noisy environment or locating the sound of a fire engine when playing at the playground. If your child struggles to shift their attention between sounds, they may benefit from Therapeutic Listening™.
What this might look like:
- Lost in space- child walks/runs the perimeter of the room, touches/stares at objects within their space.
- Overly responsive to vacuum, toilet flush, and hair dryer sounds;
- Poor awareness of spatial cues (up/down/next to etc).
- Moves body as whole (turns whole body to locate sound or engage in play).
- Difficulty with transitions
Using muscles and Know How
When kids avoid physical play, poor muscle use and knowledge of how to perform a task (praxis) may be the reason. Kids that have a limited desire to engage in physical play and movement based activities may also benefit from Therapeutic Listening™ as the modification to the music drives improved breath and body rhythm that support movement and sustained physical engagement. The strong beats and rhythms that are used within this program help to promote engaging muscles as well as to coordinate limbs for complex movement patterns.
What this might look like:
- Poor posture
- Clumsy or uncoordinated movements
- Avoids sports and physical activity
- Poor timing and sequencing (movement and social interactions)
Knowing Oneself to Engage with Others
The highest level skill targeted in this program is the ability to connect, engage and communicate with others. Many children struggle to reach this skill set as they have difficulty progressing through the previous steps which are necessary for knowing oneself in order to apply that knowledge during interactions with others. Therapeutic Listening™ helps to build these skills by using human voice within the music to enhance awareness of emotional content, tones of speech (intonation), and its content to promote the ability to comprehend and utilize the information to promote successful interactions with others.
What this might look like:
- Difficulty responding to questions/directions
- Poor body language (unable to read and express)
- Decreased eye contact
- Limited understanding of other’s feelings
- Poor turn taking in conversation
- Reduced understanding of speech content
