SUMMARY of Early Effects of the Tomatis Listening Method in Children with ADD
This is a summary of the research study investigating early effects of the Tomatis Method in children diagnosed with ADD. Improvements in processing speed, phonological awareness, reading efficiency, attention, behavior and brain physiology were hypothesized by the end of Phase 1 of the Tomatis Method intervention. The study documents the effects of Phase I of the Tomatis Listening Method of sound stimulation on children with ADD ages 7-13. Of the 25 participants, recruited from schools in the Greater Seattle area, 15 (8 boys and 7 girls) received the Tomatis treatment solely while 10 (9 boys and 1 girl) served as controls (non-Tomatis group) and were stabilized on ADD medication three months prior to and throughout the study. Therefore, the research compared Tomatis versus non-Tomatis intervention in children with ADD. Although the children in the non-Tomatis group were medicated for ADD, this research did not compare ADD medication treatment with Tomatis intervention. The Tomatis sound stimulation group received 15 consecutive Tomatis sound stimulation sessions of 2 hours each; participants received no additional vestibular or visual-motor exercises, such as swinging or balancing on a balance board, during the listening sessions or other therapies throughout the research.