Tomatis Method

It is a system founded in the 1950s by Alfred Tomatis, (1920-2001), a French ENT doctor, and which is defined as a pedagogy of listening.

But what is listening?
 
Listening is the ability to use one's hearing intentionally and attentively, and in a way that is acceptable on an emotional level, for the purpose of learning and communicating.

Listening is an action: its implementation implies the ability to select an acoustic message among others, to inhibit sounds which are not relevant, to constantly readjust the content and the form of this message, and to immediately evaluate the result of this control.
 
It is therefore a high level cognitive function.
In no case is it to be assimilated to a passive recording of sound, which would simply depend on the proper working of the auditory apparatus.

Listening may be disturbed when the interpretation, on a mental or emotional level, of the sensorial information on which it is constructed is flawed. In this case, one speaks of distortions in listening. These distortions will then be the source of difficulties and discomfort as much for the child as for the adult, and can concern all situations of daily life.
The aim of the Tomatis method is precisely to determine the causes of these distortions, and to regulate them. 
 
How do we affect Listening?
 
The pedagogical or therapeutic tool of the Tomatis Method is called the Electronic Ear. 
The Electronic Ear is a system which exploits and reactivates the strategies involved in perceptive organisation and in the management of sound environment which the brain is normally able to use when listening is not disturbed.

But listening will be disturbed when there is a dysfunction of the two muscles located in the middle ear whose role is to enable the precise and harmonious integration of acoustic information into the inner ear, and from there to the brain. In this case, the brain will put in place a system of protection, triggering mechanisms which inhibit listening.

Thus, the role of the Electronic Ear is precisely to restore these two auditory muscles to their full working ability so as to remove.