I would like to know has anyone tried Tomatis, a sound stimulation therapy program, and/or the Mozart Effect for your child or children diagnosed with Autism? If so, is this something that you are doing at your home or are you taking your child somewhere to get these services? Is it helping??

Thank you sooo much for your response! I'm thinking of trying this for my son.

Listening Therapy was just suggested to us for my daughter last week. Is that the same thing as what you are talking about?

All I know is that the child listens to music or voices, I think at different frequencies, to help retrain the ears to hear things better. It also helps the child to not be so sensitive to certain sounds. I first heard about it on the Today show. This child made a tremendous recovery from the state she was in. If anyone knows anything, please respond.

I'm here....been there, done that. My daughter is 6 she had digital audio areobics (as they call it, or AIT) 2 years ago. My daughter would cry at the grocery store if someone talked over the loud speaker. If her younger siblings would cry she would freak out. I came across info about this on the internet and decided to look into it. What it involves is 2 daily sessions about 1 hour each, of a child listening to distorted sounds via head phones. These sessions had to be at least 1 hour apart so, we had a session at 9am and then returned around noon for the second session. These sessions lasted 10 days M-F with the weekend off. A hearing test was performed before the AIT started and then repeated after 10 sessions. My daughter would not allow the first hearing test to be performed but, she wasvery cooperative for the second one. Do I think that this treatment helped.........definitely. In our case it did. My daughter is no longer bothered by noises and rarely puts her hands over her ears. If this is something that still interests you let me tell you a few things. The treatment was $1300.00 and isn't covered by insurance.You need to find somone that is certified to do the treatment.Check the AIT site and you need to get your child used to wearing head phones. I played a favorite tape and we put together puzzles while listening to it. Also, once the therapy is complete, your child CAN NOT use any type of head phones. Hope this helps

Thank you. :) I really appreciate your information. I live in a small town and this sound therapy isn't available around here. I'm considering ordering something off of the Internet that would allow me to do this with my son at home.

I thought about that also, when I first looked into the AIT. We were fortunate to have someone certified that was nearby. If you choose to do this please let us know how it worked.

My daughter is no longer bothered by noises and rarely puts her hands over her ears. If this is something that still interests you let me tell you a few things. The treatment was $1300.00 and isn't covered by insurance.You need to find somone that is certified to do the treatment.Check the AIT site and you need to get your child used to wearing head phones. I played a favorite tape and we put together puzzles while listening to it. Also, once the therapy is complete, your child CAN NOT use any type of head phones. Hope this helps

We used the Ease discs at home. Inexpensive and effective for us. The cost is a fraction of the other treatments.

I asked William Mueller about this idea of NOT using head phones after AIT training. :nono: He said it was a rumor that started because someone once got an ear infection from sharing headphones. He says head phones MAY be used appropriately.

I just checked the AIT website and indeed Dr. Guy Berard,who developed AIT, does state that there should no use of headphones after AIT training or this could cause the hearing sensitivities to reoccur. (Especially if used to listen to music.) Please tell Mr. William Mueller to check the AIT website.

Thanks, I will post again if I hear anything more on this.

Quote from Bill:

>>"As an audio engineer with over 30 years of experience, I can
categorically say that there is no difference between sound on the
eardrum at 100db whether it emanates from a pair of headphones or the
screech of a bus's air brakes. The pressure measured on the ear drum is
exactly the same.

There is no scientific reason for not wearing headphones after AIT or
EASe other than the reason I already stated, to keep from spreading
germs. I would however recommend that if your child receives either
EASe or AIT that afterward you keep her away from bus brakes and other
sources of loud noise."<<

My son used to go berserk by a baby crying or a small child's voice. However, I did notice that in certain situations it had no effect on him at all e.g. whenever he went to the children's hospital to see the dermatologist. Waiting room full of screaming kids - no reaction or if he had something specific in mind to do then noises like that wouldn't bother him.

Now he's nearly 15 those sounds don't bother him quite so much. I did think of trying sound therapy when he was young but the logistics of getting him to London and staying there for 2 weeks would have been impossible. l

His school has used Mozart at the beginning of the day and at home he plays Swan Lake non-stop. We also have a juke box which he listens to every night before bed and dances and ends up very relaxed.