Alfred A. Tomatis

Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis (January 1, 1920–December 25, 2001) was an internationally known otolaryngologist, psychologist, educator and inventor. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from the Paris School of Medicine. His alternative medicine theories of hearing are known as the Tomatis method or Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP).

His philosophical and technical studies began as an effort to help professional singers in his native Nice based on his idea of hearing as the root cause of a variety of ailments. His Hearing Test and later his Electronic Ear therapy were designed to alleviate these problems.

The Tomatis Effect
Tomatis adapted his techniques to target diverse disorders including auditory processing problems, dyslexia, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, autism, and sensory integration and motor-skill difficulties.

It is also claimed to have helped adults fight depression, learn foreign languages faster, develop better communication skills, and improve both creativity and on-the-job performance. Some musicians, singers and actors also claim to have found it helpful in fine-tuning their artistic skills.

The Tomatis Method uses altered recordings of the patient's mother and extensively uses electronically modified music by Mozart. Some people therefore call it the Mozart Effect.

Tomatis wrote 14 books, and numerous articles. Only a few have been translated into English. The most complete book on Tomatis’ discoveries has been written by one of his students, Pierre Sollier (Listening for Wellness, 2005, The Mozart Center Press).

Tomatis' Life and Work
Alfred Tomatis grew up in a musical family in France. His father was an opera singer, and he spent much of his childhood traveling with him and watching his opera performances from the wings. At an early age, however, he and his parents decided he was not fit for the stage. So he went into medicine and eventually became an Ear, Nose, and Throat physician.

Soon after he began his practice, his father began sending him opera colleagues with voice problems. Tomatis soon discovered not only did traditional treatments not work but also that there was very little research on the voice. He came up with the theory that many of the voice problems were really hearing problems. He called his theory that "The voice does not produce what the ear does not hear," the "Tomatis effect" and was the hallmark of his career and his method.

He found that the voices of opera singers had damaged their own ears. While the ear can be damaged with sounds of 80 or 90 decibels, a male opera singer often produced 150 decibels. With damaged hearing, they were forcing their voices to produce sounds in registers they could no longer hear. In his attempt to retrain the singers, he developed his device, the Electronic Ear, which used earphones and sound filters to enhance the missing frequencies. The goal was to sensitize them to the missing frequencies.

So successful was this method in treating voice problems Fact|date=December 2007}} that Tomatis began treating a number of other problems with the same methods, including reading problems, dyslexia, depression, severe schizophrenia, and even autism. He was convinced that many of these problems result from a failure of communication, which has to do with listening and the ear. His approach was based on emerging knowledge of the physiology of the ear.

First of all, the vestibule of the ear, responsible for verticality and balance, is directly connected to every muscle in the body. For development, the brain requires 2 billion stimulations a second, and 60 percent of that comes from the vestibule. Another 30 percent comes from the sound-processing inner ear, the cochlea.

Scientific reports showed that the ear starts to be formed a few days after conception and that the ear is fully developed by the fourth month of pregnancy. Tomatis theorized that information coming from the fetal ear stimulates and guides the development of the brain. He believed that autism is a communication problem that begins in pregnancy, with the fetus not properly responding to the voice of the mother.

His most controversial method attempts to lead autistic children to recognize and respond to their mother's voice. He devised an apparatus to simulate the sound of the mother's voice as heard in the uterus, and to lead the child gradually to accept and respond to her real unfiltered voice. He reported that this method often brought startling results, with children crying with joy as they recognized their mother's voice for the first time.

In many of the different problems he attempted to solve, Tomatis was often very Freudian. He believed that many problems of learning disabilities, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia, and depression were caused by some trauma resulting from broken relationships and poor communication. He found that treatment of these maladies requires the cooperation of the parents and even grandparents. Much of his work with autistic children supported the new recognition of the psychic experience of the fetus--where problems can start.

Tomatis emphasized how much the whole body is involved in the production of speech and language. We speak and listen with our whole body. He stated that reading, even silent reading, is an activity of the ear. The word is a symbol representing a sound, and in reading the whole hearing mechanism of the brain is involved. He recommended reading out loud, not only for children and by children, but also by adults, for 30 minutes a day. He claimed this not only stimulates the brain but is the best way to learn.

In his autobiography, Tomatis recounts the many conflicts he had with the medical establishment in both France and Canada, where he later worked. He finally gave up and turned in his medical license, admitting that what he was practicing very little medicine. He named his new field audio-psycho-phonology.

Many educators in the U.S. have embraced many of Tomatis' basic teachings. Children often arrive at school without the basic skills required in spoken language. Most schools today offer testing and training in both listening and speech skills. In looking at the new world of the Internet and computers, Tomatis hoped for a renewal of interest in sound, speech, hearing, and their central role in human life.

The Science of Tomatis
There is minimal amount of outside research on Tomatis therapies.

The theory of the method was investigated in 1979 by Gomez for a masters thesis at INSERM. Gomez and thesis advisor Tomkiewicz published their findings a few years later. The summary (translated) states: "We show how the scientific and ideological presuppositions which underlie his conception of psychopathology, based on intuition and magic thought, cannot constitute a coherent theoretical model."

In an article by Jill Lawton, "There were also not many objective test results available. Most studies were either not scientific, as in the case of Mrs. Flores's testimonial or the story of the monastery, or taken by centers that were probably trying to 'sell' the program."

Studies by John Kershner conclude that there is a lack of support for the educational efficacy of the Tomatis Listening Training Program (LTP) for learning disabled children. This 2 year study was limited to group of 26 students and used an auditory placebo similar to the LTP program.

Tim Gilmor's meta-analysis, covering four smaller studies of the Tomatis method, including Kershner's work, found that "Positive effects sizes were found for each of the five behavioral domains analyzed".

An analysis by Sinha Y, Silove N, Wheeler D, Williams K of six randomised controlled trials (meta-analysis was not possible owing to very high heterogeneity or presentation of data in unusable forms), concluded that "No significant adverse effects of AIT were reported. CONCLUSION: At present there is not sufficient evidence to support its use".

Tomatis states in his autobiography that he regrets not providing scientific colleagues with more statistical evidence for his work along with his many publications. But he claims that the benefits of his methods are difficult to measure.

The Companies
The rights to the Tomatis approach were obtained by a company of lawyers based in Luxembourg. They are the proprietors of the patents and logos and other companies using the Tomatis method are under licence to Tomatis Developpement SA.