TOMATIS® METHOD

What is the Tomatis® Method?

Over 50 years ago, pioneering French physician Alfred A. Tomatis developed the “electronic ear”. He found that by stimulating the ear and body with sound, he noticed profound changes in ones’ voice, body posture and emotional reactions. 

He used mainly the music of Mozart because Mozart created his music using most every instrument.  As a result, Dr. Tomatis was able to simulate every frequency of sound.  He also created a way for the stimulation to be provided not only through the air entering the ear (as we hear others), but also through the sound transmitted through vibrating the bones of our body (this is how we hear ourselves).  Ever listen to your own voice on a message and think “huh, do I really sound like that?”.  This is because we process our own voice through both bone conduction and air conduction.  We are the only ones that hear our voices the way that we hear them.  The rest of the world hears our voices only through air!  Bone conduced sound travels 10 times faster to the brain than the sound traveling via air so this is a very important feature of the Tomatis® Method.   

  • "Our previous OT was leaving the state and recommended that we find an OT practice that specializes in sensory integration. Cardinal Kids has offered so much more than sensory integration OT for my son. One of the first specialized services they recommended was Tomatis. After the first loop, our son had a noticeable increase in focus and awareness. We could also see improvement in his motor skills such as with coloring. Over time with Tomatis as well as weekly OT sessions, we have seen a transformative difference in our son's abilities. We have now completed 4 intensives of Tomatis!" - Ezra's Mom

  • “We are so grateful to Cardinal Kids for introducing us to the Tomatis Method for our daughter. She was diagnosed with anxiety, ADHD and SPD. We were given information on the Tomatis Method and decided to give it a try. Within the first session, we noticed a major change in our daughter's sensitivity to loud sounds as well as her newfound ability to focus more on the tasks at hand. She is now 8 and doing so well in school! I even notice her excitement about reading! Thank you so much Cardinal Kids for introducing us to this 'miracle'!!!” - Allie’s Mom

But, the most important difference which is unique to the Tomatis® Method from all other sound interventions is it’s gaiting system.  The gaiting system is what alerts the brain and keeps it working or attending to the music.  This is another reason why you cannot just listen to Mozart music.  Our brain has a natural tendency to tune out background music.  The gaiting effect of this special device does not allow the brain to tune out what it is listening to.  The Tomatis® Method follows all of the science when it comes to brain plasticity, high intensity, high frequency, short durations with an integration break before starting again.

Therefore, this form of therapy is delivered as an intensive therapy either in the clinic or at home. It consists of listening to music for 2 hours a day for 10 days.  We can also modify listening times as well as frequency.  For example, it could also consist of listening for 1 hour and 20 minutes per day for 14 days.  This intensive form of therapy is typically repeated 2 more times with a 6 week break in between each intensive.

It has demonstrated a profound positive impact on auditory processing speed, identifying which direction sound is coming from, being able to differentiate amongst different frequencies of sound, being able to produce sounds (even words), attending to sound, filtering out background sounds, etc.  It provides the foundations for children with difficulty attending, speech and language challenges, reading challenges, auditory processing challenges and it’s impact on emotional regulation when the auditory system is the main area of challenge.  The bone conduction (vibration) is added regulation for the entire body and brain.