HEAR MORE
What are the best early learning programs for kids? Find out on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” at www.desertcompanion/hearmore
health
Hear me, heal me An audio treatment system offers hope to children with learning disabilities. It’s music to the ears of some parents
i
By heidi kyser | Photography Christopher smith
In her sparsely furnished office at the back
of Brain Solutions, owner Kirsten Lopez flips open a laptop on her desk and turns the monitor to face me. A static image appears on a black background. It looks like some kind of puzzle, six blocks split into various colors and geometric shapes. The accompanying audio starts: Teacher: On your desks, you should have shapes and grids. We’re going to play a game now with shapes and colors. When we’re done, we will have formed a secret picture. Make sure you listen to my instructions. Student A: Are we doing art? Teacher: No, Freddie. Art class was yesterday. Here we go. I’m only going to say the directions once, so don’t ask me to repeat them. Listen carefully. Everyone take the yellow triangle and put it on the yellow circle in the grid. Student B: I don’t have a yellow triangle! Teacher: Is that yours on the floor? Now, find the green square. It belongs on the red square. Student B (whispering): Which square? Student (C): I don’t know. (In the background, a heater hums loudly. More students express their confusion, as the teacher keeps firing off instructions. I lose the thread of her voice as all the sounds swirl into an inaudible mess.) Lopez stops the recording. This, she tells me, is what it’s like for the children she works with – children with anxiety, attention deficit disorder and other issues that interfere with their ability to learn. There
24 | Desert
Companion | January 2012
Can we heal our brains with the power of sound? Proponents of the Tomatis Method say it’s an idea worth listening to.
are some 1 million of them in special ed classes in the U.S., and they find it very difficult to filter out background noise and focus on one thing, like a teacher’s voice. Everything blends into an unbearable din. Sensory overload may ensue. Some melt down, develop nervous tics, become sullen, can’t sleep. Parents can be held captive at home with children so irritated by stimuli they’re afraid to go out in public. To help, Brain Solutions deploys a specific tool called the Tomatis (“toe-MAH-tis”) Method, which is part of a larger group of treatments