Side effects, if any, are minimal & temporary

Many people worry about whether there are any side effect resulting from AIT. Berard-type AIT is the gentlest type of AIT available. Because there is no "sitting" on a single frequency, and the ears are given ample time to rest, side effects are rarely seen.

When there are side effects, these are only temporary and typically wear off within a week after the treatment cycle has ended.

The most common side effect is an increase in sensory dysfunction. Many kids who have auditory processing disorders and/or hypersensitivity to sounds have other related issues -- sensory integration dysfunction of one or more types. These SI issues include a need to move (for example, bounce, rock, jump, hand-flap, etc.), a need for deep pressure (hugs, wrestling, hanging out in the bath or shower), and more.

Because the auditory sensory system is being adjusted, all the other sensory systems will also be adjusted. This shows up first as an increase in the sensory needs, and typically starts in the 2nd half of the treatment cycle. It lasts for up to two weeks total (in other words, for about a week after the sessions are finished), then settles down to levels that are lower than they were before AIT.

One week after you finish AIT, it is common to have a difficult day or two. "Difficult" may mean being out of sorts, ornery, irritable, or something else that's not the norm. There may be
a repeat of this a month after AIT is done, and again 3 months after the end of AIT, with this episode lasting as much as a week. Many people do NOT have this irritability, but when it does occur, it is at these intervals, like clockwork.

AIT can result in a great variety of improvements

Every person's benefits vary from everyone else's. This depends partly on the client's starting point. For example, does he speak or not? Is he distractable or not? Is his eye contact good, moderate, or poor? However, here is a list of things that are commonly seen resulting from AIT. Your child (or you) may experience some or many of these changes, or maybe experience something else that's not on the list.

• improved social behaviour
• increased attention
• reduced sensitivity to sound
• follows instructions better
• improved eye contact
• decreased irritability
• happier
• calms himself more quickly
• improved speech skills
• decreased echolalia
• clearer articulation
• improved sleeping habits
• more willing to interact with others
• improved auditory comprehension
• increased length of utterance
• increased independence
• decreased impulsivity

If there is a specific change that you hope to gain and you don't see it on the list, email me at denapage@gmail.com and I'll tell you if it's something that AIT might achieve.

What is Auditory Integration Therapy?

Auditory Integration Therapy, or AIT, is a sound-and-music therapy that improves the way the ears work together. It involves listening to music over headphones in a clinic setting for one half-hour in the morning and another half hour in the afternoon (at least three hours apart to allow the ears time to rest). These sessions are held every day for 10 days in a row, or 10 days within a two-week period (e.g., 5 days on, 2 days off, 5 days on). The equipment allows for more than one person to be treated simultaneously; however, in my practice, the client listens on his own, or possibly with a parent or sibling, but never with a stranger. Although some practitioners will pair strangers up to listen together, I feel this is unfair to the clients who may not be comfortable with one another.

The music that you listen to is digitally modulated so that it jumps around from frequency to frequency over a wide range of decibels. This forces the small muscles and moving bones in the ears to work hard to grab the sounds, constantly moving -- sort of like aerobics for the inner ear! At the end of the 10 days, the ears have improved their ability to process sounds sufficiently so that you are hearing the world differently.

AIT has two benefits:

1. It decreases hypersensitivity to sound. This improvement can quite consistently be seen before the treatment cycle is complete; in fact, it seems that, for most people, the 7th day is the "magic" day, the day in which the changes are first noted. That's the day that children can tolerate you using the dishwasher/blender/lawn mower or whatever noisy item used to send them running away in fear.
2. It improves auditory processing. This change occurs more gradually. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the changes that take place in the ear result in the person having to relearn the once-familiar in his world. For example, if he used to hear the word "fork" as "for," he now needs to relearn that the proper word for a tined eating utensil is "fork." He also has to learn that "for" is still the correct word to use when saying "this is for you," or "I am four years old." This can take some time. Secondly, the changes from AIT occur not only in the ear; AIT also stimulates cell-growth in the brain. Obviously, cell-growth isn't spontaneous, so changes resulting from this growth may occur gradually. Changes in auditory processing can be seen as early as a few days after AIT begins, and as late as 3 months after the completion of AIT.
   

About Auditory Integration Therapy - a brief history

Auditory Integration Therapy is not a new therapy. Many therapies don't become "mainstream" until they've been around for decades, because it takes that long for the research to prove it works, and for people to begin to hear about it, spread the word, and try it for themselves.

AIT has been around since the 1950's, when Alfred Tomatis developed the original system to treat hearing irregularities common to children with autism. That original therapy (still in use today) used recorded music and the recorded voice of the mother, since Dr. Tomatis felt that the hearing had not developed properly when the infant was in the womb. His patients listen to this music through headphones for two hours per day, for a minimum of three weeks at a time, and they repeat this treatment frequently. Some of the theory behind this original therapy was sound, while other parts were not. So one of Tomatis's students, Guy Berard, took the basic therapy and improved upon it.

Dr. Berard spent 20 years researching and refining his work, and developed a "perfect" protocol. His therapy technique involves listening to music that jumps around through all the frequencies over a range of decibels for one-half hour, twice a day, for ten days. This therapy forces the ear to work harder than it does normally, exercising the inner ear, so that it becomes more efficient at processing sound quickly.

In the late 1970's, Annabel Stehli's daughter, Georgie, recovered from extremely hypersensitive hearing following treatment with Dr. Berard. Annabel then began her life's work to spread the word about Auditory Integration Therapy. Because Georgie had been diagnosed with autism, AIT's introduction was made to the autism world.

It is now recognised that AIT can help a wide range of people with a variety of hearing-related problems. It helps people with autism, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, some people with anxiety disorders (where there is a connection to hypersensitive hearing) and some forms of depression. It also helps people who are struggling with language development -- either learning a 2nd language or the otherwise typically developing "late talker".

Recent developments in auditory integration therapies have brought about home-based versions of AIT. While these seem to be effective to some extent, the results are not as successful as Berard's AIT, nor is there research proving effectiveness yet. More on this in "How AIT works."