Alfred Tomatis’ Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP)

Developed by Alfred Tomatis, Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP) is listening re-training and uses filtered music to stimulate the ear via the bones and muscles of the middle ear, the cochlea, vestibular system, and auditory nerve. This assists in normalizing listening and sensory integration throughout the body.

Our abilities to focus, switch our attention, ignore background noise, and modulate the intensity of our incoming perceptions all contribute to good listening. Through both the vestibular and cerebellar systems we integrate all of the sensory information that comes into us and then coordinate motor movements of the body and eyes. This system is also important in regulating anxiety. 

After a Listening Evaluation is completed Sharron creates an individually tailored program to target the frequency ranges that have been impaired and the program begins; intermittent Listening Evaluations are given throughout the process of training the ear. 

It is increasingly used with children and adults to help with:

  • Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADD/ADHD)
  • Autism spectrum disorders
  • Depression
  • Chronic Stress
  • Auditory processing disorders
  • Learning Disorders
  • Visual-Motor  and balance deficits

It can also aid anyone in motor-coordination, handwriting skills, (eye-hand coordination), and communication/language skills; it is particularly suited for musicians and students. Decades of clinical work has shown this work can improve auditory processing and overall neurological organization Audio-Psycho-Phonology is now used in many European countries. 

The ear is primary to language development.

Higher frequencies change the cortex of our brain and give us energy. Lower frequencies engage the vestibular system affecting our body’s motor abilities and and visual motor skills important to learning. When the ear’s ability to process sound improves, it is easier to learn. We can focus attention selecting what sounds we want to hear and tuning out those that are unwanted. As it becomes easier to understand what is being communicated to us, the joy of communicating with others and expressing ourself returns.

Listening , which integrates our sensations and perceptions, begins in utero when the fetus becomes aware of the sounds and frequencies in the fluids of the mother’s body and her voice. APP engages this developmental listening process by using filters with the mother’s recorded voice, reproducing how sound is heard in utero and deepening the effect of the listening re-training.

An assessment from an initial listening test is followed by a program of 50 to 200 hours of auditory stimulation over several months. Sharron monitors the ear’s progress in better detecting subtle discriminations of language, musical, and emotional response. A specialized machine, developed by Alfred Tomatis, filters and gates music so it is specifically patterned for your child’s ear, giving optimal stimulation at the frequencies the need and are deficient in.

Alfred Tomatis

After years of working with emotional trauma and observing auditory sensistivities, Sharron decided to study Alfred Tomatis’ work at the institute he designated to carry on his research, Mozart-Brain-Lab in Sint, Truiden, Belgium. Alfred Tomatis was a French otolaryngologist whose seminal research has fueled many offshoots of his work in listening therapies. 

Dr. Tomatis initially worked with opera singers and factory workers, finding that the voice can only produce the sounds that it hears, and that right ear dominance is vital for language, language comprehension, and learning. He found that higher frequencies charge our brain and give us energy. Learning also depends on right and left brain hemisphere specialization which can be affected by this work. 

Our emotions are linked to our sense and Tomatis found that listening may be dampened as an emotional defense, which then contributes to learning problems and poor social skills. 

“Just because a hearing test is normal, doesn’t mean listening is intact.”