The Power of Sound:
A Therapy Worth Listening To?
By Kristie Lockwood

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The Listening Program
Developed by Advanced Brain Technologies, The Listening Program is a music-based auditory stimulation method that “trains the brain” to help improve the auditory skills needed to effectively listen, learn and communicate, according to company information.

CDs include classical music by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Corelli and others mixed with nature sounds intended to aid in spatial awareness and listening training. Advanced Brain Technologies says the program is particularly effective for improving auditory processing problems including short-term auditory memory and effective listening with background noise. The program is primarily for home use and for implementation in facilities such as schools and healthcare centers.

The Listening Program’s core program is typically administered five days per week for 15 to 30 minutes each day. The protocol lasts between eight to 16 weeks. Listeners might go through a second cycle to ensure they maintain their results, the company says, and some participants might even repeat the program a third time.

Aurora Strategies charges $575 for The Listening Program, which includes pre- and post-testing, program CDs and materials, a consultation with a certified provider, monitoring and a follow-up report with recommendations.

Earobics
Earobics is a computer software tutorial program designed to teach phonological awareness, listening and introductory phonics skills required for learning to read and spell. Cognitive Concepts, the company that developed and markets Earobics, offers three levels of the program for home use. In addition to phonological awareness, these software programs include skill development in auditory attention, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, rhyming, sound segmentation and phonemic synthesis.

The home-based programs are available for $59. Some local school districts also offer Earobics to their students at no direct cost.  Earobics Step 1 is for children in pre-k through kindergarten, Step 2 is marketed for first and second graders and Earobics 1 for Adolescents and Adults is for children age 10 and older who are struggling to read, spell and improve comprehension. Company literature says most program users show significant skill improvement from using Earobics only 15 to 20 minutes per day, three times a week.

Interactive Metronome
Interactive Metronome is a computer-based program participants can do at home or in a clinic or school setting. The program, which filters computer-generated beats through headphones, challenges users to synchronize repetitive hand and foot exercises that are measured through hand and foot sensors. The sensors record, in milliseconds, the difference between the metronome beat and participant’s response. The goal is for the participant to match the rhythmic beat or to lower the amount of time between the beat and the response.

Stanley Greenspan, chairman of the Interactive Metronome, Inc. Scientific Advisory Committee and a nationally prominent child psychiatrist, says the therapy “improves motor planning and sequencing so that children can carry out a multi-step process. As timing improves, sequencing improves.”

Greenspan says that Interactive Metronome has been shown to improve motor skills and attention span as well as increase coordination. The therapy teaches participants to focus and attend for longer periods of time, increase physical endurance and stamina, filter out internal and external distractions and improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring, according to the Interactive Metronome Web site.

Costs for Interactive Metronome therapy varies widely depending on provider fees and the setting in which the therapy sessions take place. Hetzel of Aurora Strategies says prices range from $35 to $120 per hour, and some providers will package the therapy for the entire length of the session. The therapy typically consists of 15 one-hour sessions and spans a three- to five-week period. Throughout the therapy, the program progressively challenges individuals to improve their response time and accuracy.

Realistic Expectations
Although there are many anecdotal stories regarding gains made with various sound therapies, Whitelaw warns parents to be realistic about their expectations.

“None of these programs are cures, but if selected appropriately, they can help build underlying deficits for children,” Whitelaw says. “The best results come and are maintained when there is ongoing support for these children in their school environment.”

Whitelaw says she is confident that there is no inherent danger in these programs, but a family’s time, financial and psychological investment needs to be weighed carefully.

“With appropriate intervention [auditory processing deficits] can get better and are manageable. We don’t do parents a service when we lead them to believe there is a quick fix,” Whitelaw says. “This is a job for a lifetime, or at least 18 years for parents.”

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