The Importance of Sound

"What we know from the training of tens of thousands of learning disabled and normally developed individuals is that sound listening training can improve cognitive skills, language, body function, mood, energy level and many other aspects of wellness. We see profound, astonishing improvements in individuals who cannot maintain attention, control body functions, speak fluently -- if at all, after just 24 hours of EnListen® training. Recent research has shown that connectivity among different parts of the brain is impaired in individuals suffering from autism. The researchers call this condition "underconnectivity." We also know from recent research conducted by clinical psychologists that dyslexic individuals trained with EnListen® for 60 hours improve brain connectivity and reduce the effects of their disability. This scientific research is consistent with the anecdotal results from tens of thousands of individuals suffering from autism, dyslexia, Tourettes, speech impediments, and other learning disabilities who have improved, some dramatically, after this type of training." 
Guy Bruner - VP of Training
Progress Listening Technology

The Ear – Sound Affects Everything We Do The ear is a sound sensing organ which is developed at 4.5 months gestation – 1st organ developed in the body. It greatly influences the mental & physical development of the individual Two of the three most important nerves of the body attach in the ear and share signals to the brain and other parts of the body: Cochlear Nerve – Auditory Vagus Nerve – Motor Skills Cochlear nerve sends sound signals that stimulate the brain Vagus nerve stimulates the brain to control the major organs of the body. The reason EnListen® is so powerful is that it stimulates both of these nerves, as well as the muscles of the inner ear, and thus affects the ear, brain and body.

Air Conduction - This is the way we process sound the best

Air Conduction is the way we should process the best and when you speak or someone speaks to you, sound comes through the air and enters your ear and then your middle ear.
 
In the middle ear we have little bones and muscles called the stapedes bones and stapedes muscles. The stapedes muscles vibrate extremely rapidly and do a couple of things for us.
 
The first thing they do is to filter. We have to be able to filter out background noises and non-useful information. For example, a child at the circus or in a crowded restaurant or movie theater should be able to filter out a lot of the background and crowd noise.

A child at school should be able to filter out the sound of a lawnmower outside the window and not think the mower is in the next chair. If we're walking through a grocery store, we should be able to filter out the noise from the registers, overhead announcements, others talking and Associates stocking the shelves.
 
The second thing they do is to take the important information and buffer it, sort of like a hair dryer diffuser. Buffering softens the sound and makes the information more manageable.
 
From the middle ear, the now filtered and buffered sound goes to the nervous system where it is coded. Then the nervous system coding mechanism forwards the signal to the brain. The brain has to receive that signal and know what to do with it. It has to know if the signal is a body frequency, maybe the vagus nerve sending a signal to the brain to tell it that it is time to toilet. Or it could be a language frequency, like the teacher saying, “Get in your seat.”

Bone Conduction - A Less desirable way

Nature gave us a back-up system to air conduction and that is bone conduction. Everybody processes a little bit through bone conduction, but unless there is virtually no hearing or air conduction at all, it should remain the back-up system.
 
Remember the Miss America who was deaf? She could ballet dance and everyone wondered how a deaf girl could dance. She actually had a bone conduction enhancement device. Bone conduction was all she had so she made the most of it.
 
Categorically, children on the Autism spectrum, Attention Deficit children, and children who have difficulties with texture, sound sensitivity and sensory integration tend proportionately to process sound much more through bone than through air. This can be caused by a genetic predisposition, Autism itself, or some kind of compromise to the system such as chronic ear infections. If a child’s middle ear process has been damaged, he or she begins to compensate with bone conduction and that, then snowballs and the child depends more and more on bone and less and less on air.
 
Because bone is a denser medium, sound travels faster and stronger through it than through air. Bone conduction never gives the body time to process sound properly because the sound never hits the middle ear process where it can be filtered and buffered. Instead, the signal goes into the bone, often around the mastoid bone or the skull area, and then travels directly to the nervous system and the brain without ever being filtered or buffered.
 
We learn to process through bone in utero because obviously there is no air in the womb. Therefore, it is easy for these children to revert to bone conduction as the first way they learned to process.

High bone conduction can lead to auditory overload and under utilization of the other 4 senses.

Which can result in many sensory dysfunctions such as: 

• Lack of eye contact - child looks away
  
• Touch Sensitivity – shirt tags, sticky hands
  
• High Pain Tolerance
  
• Constant need for motion, tactile stimulation
  
• English Peas feel like rocks
  
• Taste sensitivity – picky eater, cannot tolerate very sweet or soft foods
• Sensitivity to noise - children holding their ears
• Meltdowns in certain high traffic stores
• Not able to go to the movies
• Vacuums bother your child, but blenders are fine
• Your child hears sounds that you do not

Five Senses Working In Harmony	Auditory Overload Distresses The Other Senses