LATERALITY (Valerie Dejean) Dr. Tomatis certainly feels that language involves a communication between both hemispheres. It's the lateralization of audio-vocal control that he feels is important for efficiency. This does not mean that this has to agree with dominance throughout the body but I do think that Tomatis would say that there has to be a coordination between the body and this center for audio-vocal control and that does involve some more general lateralization of body functions. It is imperative that that decisions about imposing laterality need to be based on a foundation of knowledge about neurological maturation and these decisions are more complicated depending on how involved the client is.

LATERALITY Valerie Dejean, Spectrum Center NYC

Laterality is one of the most tricky areas to administer in the Tomatis method. I found very early in the application of the method that if I was going to run into difficulty with a child's program and their reactions to it, it would be in the area. In other words it was when we started to change the balance or impose laterality that we might see upheaval or regression.

Therefore it's in the application of imposing lateralization that I've deviated the most from standard training techniques as I learned them in Paris. However to me that is the beauty of the method in that there are so many opportunities for clinical reasoning. And I've been happy to find that Tomatis himself, as he is back in the clinic increasingly since his retirement, has been altering the application of the method as it involves lateralization, particularly with the more severely involved child.

Laterality and maybe more specifically dominance and consistency of dominance is such a hotly debated topic.I will address the subject of Dr. Tomatis' theories about the lateralization of audio-vocal control for phonation. Since the speech center for the majority of people including left handed individuals, is in the left hemisphere there is slightly surer footing on this topic.

Please note that I emphasize speech centers and not language centers. Dr. Tomatis certainly feels that language involves a communication between both hemispheres. It's the lateralization of audio-vocal control that he feels is important for efficiency. This does not mean that this has to agree with dominance throughout the body but I do feel that Tomatis would say that there has to be a coordination between the body and this center for audio-vocal control and that does involve some more general lateralization of body functions.

It is imperative that that decisions about imposing laterality need to be based on a foundation of knowledge about neurological maturation and these decisions are more complicated depending on how involved the client is. One of the problems in studying the Tomatis method is the broad variety of populations the treatment can be employed with. In Europe now the most common reason for taking the Tomatis training is for the training of the ear for foreign language acquisition. Many professional singer and musicians take the training for the reeducation of their ears to enhance their frequency interpretation to improve either their voice or instrument playing.

A Tomatis practicioner is trained for all applications, yet the lateralization schedule for the autistic or learning disabled individual should be much different than for a well functioning ear that is trying to improve certain advanced skills. It's in the timing of when, how fast, at what part in the program that I've had to do a great deal of self learning. As I already mentioned as Tomatis is doing more clinical work especially with Autistic children, he is suggesting that our treatment should be before the level of lateralization and if we train the body to listen correctly lateralization should establish itself.

That reminds one very much of the conclusion that Jean Ayres came to. So for today I'd like to look a little more closely at lateralization from Tomatis' perspective. I think we will find similarities in his thinking to that of Jean Ayres. Combined with that I think we can see the rationalizations for how and at what point we would want to apply lateraliztion through changing the balance in our application of sound and therefore encourage a leading ear.

copyright Valerie Dejean 2008

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