FAQs
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In the
treatment of Autism at the Spectrum Center we combine Tomatis
Auditory Training with Sensory Integration Gym. By doing so,
we perform a "soft reset" on the vestibular system, which
produces a better sense of balance and gravitation. This is
discussed in Valerie
Dejean's new book on Autism.
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Discussion with
Consulting Anthropologist, William J. Kennick (husband
of Valerie M Dejean)
Q: How much does what Valerie does cost?
A: Seven thousand dollars.
Q: Do you have insurance codes?
A: No.
Q: What does your treatment consist of?
A: 60 hours of treatment at her facility over a period of three months.
The Spectrum Center Method incorporates the Tomatis Method with
Vestibular Re-integration.
Q: Is this the same as the "Tomatis" CDs that sell for $500?
A: Well, actually, No.
Q: Does it really cure autism?
A: It certainly reverses autism in 90 percent of her clients.
Q: What really helps autistic children?
A: There's Floortime, Sensory Integration, Sensory Diet and Spectrum
Center Method. These are all methods of reintegrating a scrambled
nervous system.
Q: What's the best?
A: Hers, of course. What you want to do is minister to the body and the
brain at the same time. You work on the middle ear but you also work on
the skin. Your child has the 100 percent attention of a listening
therapist at all times. You swing and bounce and listen all at the same
time. You play with yucky materials and have your skin brushed in the
manner of Patricia Wilbarger's Sensory Diet. Etc. An then, of course
there is the real Tomatis Method practiced at the Spectrum
Center.
Phone 1-877-4AUTKID
Q: What's this Tomatis-Based
Therapy?
The Tomatis company has tried to protect its trademark but many
"Tomatis
Based" therapies have appeared. Read Valerie Dejean's article "All
listening is not the Same" to get an in depth analysis of why each
of
these knock-offs has failed in some respect or another to replicate the
Tomatis Electronic Ear.
There is even one knock-off called Samonas which
rhymes with Tomatis.
One follower of Tomatis who got it right is Don Campbell, who
wrote The Mozart Effect which
revolutionized the industry and has, in my opinion been the greatest
positive influence on the field of therapeutic listening. Q. What about
these other "Spectrum Centers" which are popping up in
Long Island, and are offering some type of "Tomatis"?
A. Copy Cats. It may be even Legal for them to use our name but
certainly it is intentionally misleading. Just remember, if it ain't
from Paris, it's not the real Tomatis.
Q. What about Valerie's new book, Vestibular
Re Integration of the Autistic Child, A developmental Model for Autism?
A. When Valerie was chosen by the Tomatis Company to train
practitioners in the United States, she developed portions of this book
to tell the story of Tomatis. Then she added further insights based on
her 17 years of clinical work with autistic children. Then she
developed a whole new paradigm which will be the subject of another
book.
Q. Which is the best?
A. Let's just say that if I wanted to learn basketball, I would go to a
coach or teacher who had 17 years experience. In the hands of a less
experienced coach, I might make progress for three days only to have it
undone the
next three days if the inexperienced coach did not realize that he was teaching my
nervous system bad habits.
This is a very fast, very powerful therapy, sort of like reinstalling
an operating system on your computer. You want someone with experience,
knowledge and training reformatting your kid.
It is not really the machine that does the work here. The Tomatis
machine, or even some of the imitation Tomatis knock-offs are not just
machines like the radio that you can turn on and let it play itself.
That's not what makes your kid better. The real Tomatis machine is like
an instrument to be played like a violin by a skilled practitioner.
Valerie might be driving
down the road on a Saturday or Sunday
and she a gets a call from the office saying that this kid is is acting
such and such a way during his therapy and is that all right? Valerie
might make a change in the program, and back at the office they change
the settings on the machine right there and then based on that
information.
Somebody who really knows his trade can do that, based on having worked
on two thousand kids who had similar situations. Personally, I would
take my kid to that practitioner, who had the experience if I
could identify who that practitioner was.
It's like finding the right baby doctor. You don't want them practicing
on your kid while they are still learning. If you go to somebody that
got three days training before some "Tomatis Based" salesman sent him
home with a thirty thousand dollar machine, you can bet that they are
still learning. Remember, it' not the machine, its the
practitioner. It's not the violin, its Horowitz. Its not the piano,
it's Rubenstein. It's not the bat, it's Babe Ruth. It's not the
machine, it's Valerie (my wife).
But speaking of other
machines I personally had a very good
experience with Paul Madaulle's LIFT (the little machine). While we
figured out that it delivers only about one- seventh of the Tomatis
effect, he is nevertheless, not doing anything actually wrong
with his little machine. My eighty six year old mother had had a stroke
and I heard the doctor say that she was dyspraxic. I had heard my wife
talk about Dyspraxia all the time, so I asked my wife what I could for
my mother who was confined to a hospital bed. My wife gave me Paul
Madaulle's little machine to try on my mother.
In two weeks my mother was such a success story at the Seventh Day
Adventist hospital that they admitted her into the Seventh Day
Adventist Nursing home across the street. Meaning. I suppose that she
was improving so fast that she helped their statistics. So if you are
stuck on a desert island or in a hospital bed, get the little machine.
But have Valerie program it for you. And make sure to replace the
batteries every two days. And make sure not to switch the right and the
left earphones. You get the idea?
You have one chance to get
your mother out of the hospital and into the best nursing home, so
don't blow it.
Get the best person you can identify. If they were trained by Tomatis
himself, or Valerie, that's a good start. If the machine came from
Paris (or Luxumbourg) that's good. It's probably the real Tomatis.
(Bill Kennick is a former city councilman in Alliance, Ohio and was his
party's nominee for the United States House of Representatives in
1986.)
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William J. Kennick
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