Autism

The mother's voice, bone conduction and Tomatis

What is autism?

Autism is one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). These are severe, early-onset disorders, marked by delays and impairments in the development of social interaction, cognitive and communication skills.

According to the International Classification of Diseases and the DSM-IV, autism is defined by the following symptoms:

• Early onset, before the age of 3
• Severe difficulties with social interaction
• Severe abnormalities in language development
• Restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviours, interests and activities
• Unusual sensory responses, through hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity

The Tomatis Method and autism

The Tomatis Method is one of many possible approaches to educating an autistic child, and it can never be enough on its own. It can, however, be a very useful ally in tackling the condition, because it can help the autistic person very effectively on several levels. Here is how.

A protocol based on the mother's voice

First of all, substantial work is done with the mother's voice: the child is taken back into the sound world of the womb, to try to awaken a desire to communicate.
By transmitting the mother's voice with a strong element of bone conduction, the idea is to awaken in the child an awareness of a primal, unbreakable bond that reaches them from within. The mother's voice has a striking calming effect: very often, the child calms down instantly on hearing it, and seems to remember and recognise it.

In practice, the aim is to make contact with the child through very specific bone-conduction work. This work helps to sharpen the child's body image, because perceiving the bone structure creates an awareness of the body's framework as a whole. Bone-conduction work also makes the skin more responsive, and so heightens awareness of the body's outer boundary. This stronger skin response in turn makes the child more receptive to all vibrations, and in particular to the sounds involved in speech.

• Awakening contact through the skin, and so through touch, also encourages eye contact, as the two senses work in a similar way. The child's gaze becomes more exploratory, and they begin to “feel” their visual surroundings with their eyes.
• The whole face becomes more expressive, and the child begins to use and master non-verbal aspects of communication, such as certain facial expressions.
• Once the ear is properly regulated through bone conduction, the abrupt swings often seen from auditory hypersensitivity to hyposensitivity disappear or become less frequent.
• On the verbal side, when the child already speaks, they become more talkative and their speech becomes more expressive, with a more appropriate use of intonation.

A multisensory approach

Finally, this multisensory approach is all the more effective because auditory stimulation, which brings a strong boost in energy, helps to bring under control the intense anxiety from which the autistic child suffers.

This multisensory way of working is very important, as it helps the child build a coherent picture of their own body and of how it relates to the world around them.

What next?

Booking an appointment at the centre to assess your situation will allow us to suggest a suitable protocol. The treatment can take place at the centre or at home.