The Tomatis Method retrains the listening system by using electronically modified music and language to re-educate, stimulate and improve the way in which we process auditory information. The Tomatis Method assists in enhancing the ability to differentiate between certain frequencies which is a pre-requisite for language development and for the processing of all auditory information reaching the brain. The training is provided using a mini computer and delivered through advanced electronic and audio circuitry known as the Electronic Ear or Listening Trainer. Education with the Electronic Ear requires a great variety of very specific sonic stimuli, and which envelop all the phases of listening from the most archaic in a liquid medium (in utero) to the most evolved of adulthood. The goal of the Tomatis Method is to maximize the capacity for communication that everyone has, by giving or restoring to the individual his or her full potential as a listener.

Listening Through Bone Conducted Sound

If you think about it, you will know that we hear with more than just our ears. The bones of our body and our skin tissue are also sensitive to sound (bone conducted sound). When we hear a gunshot, a loud screech or a door slamming, our bodies shudder instinctively. The sounds picked up by our bones are transmitted directly to our inner-ear without any filter to dampen their intensity. They arrive in the brain without any warning signals. That is why they produce a reflex reaction. On the other hand, sounds picked up by our ears (air conducted sound) are dampened to a comfortable intensity. Furthermore, the body takes in sounds and forewarns the brain that the sounds are coming milliseconds before the sounds actually reach our ears.

The Tomatis Method trains the ears to become the main entrance to sounds, training the child's bone conduction to be the secondary entrance of auditory information. This training is achieved by listening to gated music through a special headphone that are equipped with a vibrator located at the top of the headphones designed to deliver sound to the bone (head). Through this vibrator, bone receives the stimulus at the same time as you listen with your ears. Over time, by listening to sounds delivered at a different timing between the bone and ears, de-sensitization of bone conducted sound occurs. This reduces stress on the brain due to the elimination of confusing inputs and gives you the ability to pay attention and learn more effectively.

The Tomatis Program incorporates two phases:-

During the passive phase the individual listens to electronically modified Mozart music and Gregorian chant and young children also listen to their mother's voice. During the active phase, the individual listens to and recites hundreds of words and phrases, which are re-directed back to the individual's own auditory system, to train the brain to control the voice and phonation. Progress in treatment is traced by the use of a Listening Test unique to the Tomatis Method, which is an auditory perception test which focuses on an individual's initial receptivity to different sounds as well as their ability to accurately distinguish between these pure tone sounds. Both air and bone conduction threshold are obtained. Resulting profiles are interpreted within guidelines, which take developmental and psychophysiological considerations into account.

Notable beneficiaries of the Tomatis Method® include Sting, Gerard Depardieu, Maria Callas and other internationally acclaimed musicians, singers and actors.