Listening training at the centre or at home?

A little history

To understand why we wrote this short article, and to try to answer the question, let's go back to the 1980s. Sound reproduction technology being what it was then, Dr Tomatis naturally chose the best available: Revox-type magnetic tape recorders. Given the size of the machine (see for yourself below), to which the electronic ear still had to be connected, it was only natural that listening sessions took place on site. Moving those monsters around was out of the question!

Today things are different. We have a choice.

Advances in technology have led to the device we use today, the TalksUp®. Made by Tomatis Développement, which is run by the Tomatis family, it is the rightful, present-day successor to the electronic ear. Here it is below.

Easy to use, intuitive, portable and easy to carry, it lets you get the most out of your listening session. So, should you do the treatment at the centre or at home? The answer is simple: it's up to you! Here are the PROS and CONS to help you choose.

The advantages of a session at home

• You decide on the times.
• You decide what you do while you listen.
• There is no break at the weekend.
• You can take a long break during your 2 x 40-minute listening session.
• You don't need to come to the centre every day.
• You do 10 to 13 days in a row
• You can send someone else to collect or return the device.
• You can receive your device by post.

The advantages of a session at the centre

• Everything is taken care of for you
• The times are set in advance, so there's no way to forget or skip a session
• For children, games and supervision are available on site
• If something breaks down or goes wrong, we can help you straight away
• You have a break at the weekend

The disadvantages of a session at home

• You have to organise yourself and manage the protocol.
• You need to find a quiet place to yourself.
• If you make a mistake in the protocol without realising, we won't be able to correct you.
• For children, you need to look after them or keep them busy while they listen.
• If there's a problem, we won't be able to sort it out for you straight away.
• You have to make sure yourself that the device is working properly.

The disadvantages of a session at the centre

• You can't change the times
• You have to come every day and stay for 1 hour 30 minutes
• You only get a 10-minute break during your 2 x 40-minute listening session
• What you can do during the listening session is limited
• Treatment stops at the weekend
• The treatment is spread over 3 weeks instead of 10 to 13 days.

Our Tomatis consultant, Julien Frère, who discovered the method at 14, tells you what it was like back then.

When I had the method more than thirty years ago (yes, I'm getting old...), you had to go to the centre for the listening sessions. Every weekday for two weeks, I would settle in and listen for two hours, with all the hassle of getting there and back.

I remember riding for an hour on my moped to get to the centre, and another hour to get home. When I complained, my mother would say: “You're lucky, we should really have gone to Paris.”

The music was recorded on magnetic tape, then filtered before being played through the headphones. All this equipment took up a lot of space; a whole room was given over to it.

Julien FRÈRE, Tomatis® consultant