The Ear and Listening

In the time of the last half of the 12th century, a French MD, a researcher and a philosopher, Alfred A. Tomatis, defined the ear as a fundamental organ for multiple physical, emotional and neurological establishment responses. Not merely is the ear and its complex features to send information to the brain and the body fundamnetally for hearing and sound worldview, it develops balance and equilibrium. It is also specifically for the development of verticality, laterality, spatiality, and language improvement.

Tomatis's innovative findings is based on the ear's ability to segregate between sounds it chooses to hear and the capability to tune out sounds that are unwanted. The ear's ability to listen and focus, detect sounds spatially and generate auditory information as it is perceived by the brain, has immerge the theme in over a hundred centers worldwide provided to assist children and adults with speech and communication disorders, head injuries, attention deficit disorders, and autism.

The listening system beings in utero while the fetus ready to aware of sound and frequencies in the liquid world of the heartbeat, sound and breath of the mother's voice. In La Nuit Uterine (Edition Stock, Paris, 1980), Tomatis explores in depth clinical observations on the nature of intrauterine listening. He specifically defines the phylogenic and ontogenetic development of the ear and its neurological implications for the progression of language.

Dr. Tomatis successfully proved that the voice able to reflect the nature of the ear's capability to hear, a condition know as the Tomatis Effect. When the worldview of midrange and high frequencies is gone in the prenatal and the first three years of life, drawbacks in listening and learning often immerge. Without any clear traces in deafness, a deficient functionality to hear frequencies below 1000Hz can make difficulty in understanding and remembering spoken information. A listening test for each ear was invented by Dr. Tomatis to show specific areas where frequency fatality occur. Fatality variations in frequencies between 1000Hz and 2000Hz make it hard to sing in tune. When there are difficulties above 2000Hz, the voice will often be dull and not expressive.

Commonly, a healthy adult able to hear hear up to the 20,000Hz range, offering a bright and clear capability to differentiate sounds. When there is a drawback in the high frequencies, it is necessary to strain. The capability to focus upon and detects sounds or voices in a noisy room is one of the immenent challenges of those with listening disabilities.