Finding solutions that offer hope and confidence

These days everyone seems to be talking about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

If you haven’t heard about it at school, from a family member or had personal experience, you’ve probably read about it or seen it on TV.

In this document you will find out what you can do about it. The therapy offered at the Mozart Center, while not a cure, can go a long way to help people with ADD or ADHD. All programs are  individually tailored to get the best possible results.

A review of the scientific literature shows that ADD is a hotly debated topic. Some experts go as far as saying that the ADD syndrome lacks supportive evidence and should be clinically discarded (G. Coles, L. Fleisher and P. Breggin). Others believe that ADD is a neurological syndrome whose cause might be genetic (Hallowell and Ratey). However, they admit "the exact mechanism underlying ADD remains unknown. There is no single lesion of the brain, no single neurotransmitter system, no single gene we have identified that triggers ADD." As you see, even the experts do not agree. 

We have no idea who is right. Our only concern is to help people with ADD and ADHD overcome their problems. We do so "The Natural Way",  without medication.  Over the years, we have been quite successful helping people, by fine-tuning the way they listen. In the following paragraphs you will see why this is important, and why it works.

If you think about it, you’ll know that we hear with more than just our ears. The bones of our body and our skin tissue are also sensitive to sound. When we hear a gunshot, a loud screech or a door slamming, our bodies shudder instinctively and can even give us "Goosebumps". The sounds picked up by our bones are transmitted directly to our inner-ear, without any filter to dampen their intensity. They arrive in the brain without any warning signals. That's why they produce a reflex reaction. On the other hand, sounds picked up by our ears are dampened to a comfortable intensity.  In addition, the body picks up the sounds slightly before they reach our ears, and so our ears are forewarned that sounds are coming. 

People with some types of ADD or ADHD hear too much through bone conduction. They primarily listen with their body, instead of with their ears. As a result, all sounds go directly into the inner ear, without any filter to dampen the intensity and to filter out irrelevant sound input.  That is one of the reasons why they are so reactive. They are at the mercy of what is going on in their environment because they have somehow lost the ability to focus and tune out extraneous background noise.

If you can, try to imagine what it would be like to not have the ability to tune out the extraneous noise around you. Every noise would have the same amount of sound value. You’d try to catch a word but then a noise from somewhere distracts you. As a result,  you missed the next part of the conversation or instruction being given. People would begin to get mad at you because you didn’t pay attention. You knew you meant to focus your attention but these other noises kept intruding. Now imagine this happening over and over and over in a day’s time, a week’s time, a month’s time or even over a year’s time. You get the picture. 

If it were you, how would you feel?

» You’d feel overwhelmed.
» You’d feel like it was hard to learn due to the distractions.
» You might feel ashamed that you couldn’t focus like other people.
» You’d always feel like you’re trying to catch up.
» You’d probably feel confused because of the constant sound overload.
» You could possibly feel inferior because it’s so difficult to keep up due to the distractions.

So, what would you do to cope with this situation?

» You could tune-out, become lethargic and very quiet

» You could react to every bit of input you get, frantically jumping from one topic to the next, never be able to stay with one topic, in short, suffer from attention deficit.

At the Mozart Center, we'll train your ears to become the main entrance to sounds, and make your bone conduction the secondary entrance. That way, the sounds can be processed in the correct way.  We'll do it by having you listen to gated music through a special headphone that is equipped with a vibrator. Through the vibrator you'll listen with your body, at the same time as you listen with your ears. Over time, you will adjust to listening primarily with your ears. Desensitizing the bone conduction reduces the stress and gives you the ability to pay attention and learn more effectively.

We will also train you to correctly use the bone conduction. One of its functions is to forewarn the ear that sound is coming. This can be best illustrated with an example. When you want someone to really pay attention, you tap him or her on the shoulder and say: hey listen! The function of the bone is exactly the same: it says to the ear: hey listen! Ideally, the ear should obey to this command almost instantaneously. In people with ADD and ADHD, however, it can take a relatively long time. So, their ears are not ready to process the incoming sounds in time. Fortunately, we can remedy this.  When we start the training, will send the sounds to the bone a long time before it is sent to the ear (up to 250 milliseconds in case of severe Attention Deficit). Over time we will gradually reduce the time lapse between sound sent to the bone and the ear, getting your brain adjusted to the proper use of your bone conduction.

To the surprise of many, we each have a dominant ear.  Some are right-ear dominant.  Others are left-ear dominant.  The advantage in being right-ear dominant is that the right ear processes the incoming auditory information faster than the left ear. Therefore, people who are right ear dominant are more likely to pay better attention. 

The right ear processes information faster because it sends the information directly to the left brain, which specializes in processing language. However, the left ear sends the information to the right brain, which cannot process language. The information has thus to be rerouted to the left brain via the Corpus Callosum.  Because that’s a longer pathway, the information is delayed. Left-ear-dominant people thus have to play catch-up all the time. Not only is the information late, it is also incomplete. In the transfer from the right brain to the left brain, some of the higher frequencies are lost. As we have seen before, these are the frequencies that are key to distinguish similar sounds (like a B and a P). Left-ear-dominant people thus not only have to play catch-up, they also have to play with an incomplete deck.

The Tomatis Listening Program helps people with ADD and ADHD achieve better right-ear dominance. Towards the end of the program, we'll gradually shift the sounds from the left ear to the right ear. You'll also do some reading exercises through a microphone coupled with our electronic equipment. We'll filter your voice and return it exclusively to your right ear. It will teach you to listen to yourself and develop self-listening skills, which people with ADHD and ADD often lack. Over time, you'll become right ear dominant, making it easier for you to pay attention.

Our clinical experience shows that, in most cases, your symptoms of ADD and ADHD will gradually decrease, just by tuning-up your ears.

Would you like to read some true accounts from children and adults with ADD and ADHD?

Find out more. Explore the rest of our site!