| Thirty two learning disabled children between the ages of seven and fourteen were randomly assigned to a Tomatis Listening Training Program (LTP) group, or a Special Tutorial Program (STP) group. The purpose of the study was to empirically investigate the general question of the effectiveness of the resource withdrawal, school based Tomatis LTP. Learning disability subtype designation resulted in groups consisting of equal numbers of subjects considered to have left hemisphere/sequential processing deficits, and right hemisphere/simultaneous processing deficits. All children participated in their school's normal academic program during the present study. The STP program was designed to control for the effects of attention, motivation, and parental interest, as well as possible placebo or Hawthorne effects related to the use of the LTP's Electronic Ear. The study examined the general effectiveness of the LTP, the empirical basis of Tomatis' theory of audio-psycho-phonology and the potential differential effects of treatment on the subtypes.;Statistical analyses were computed for pre-test and post-test results on measures of psycho-educational ability, neuropsychological functioning and self-concept. No significant differences between the groups or subtypes emerged on the Tomatis Listening Test, considered within Tomatis theory to be a central measure of listening performance and treatment effects. Listening test performance for the LD sample was found to be no different than that of a normally achieving comparison group. No relationship was found between performance on the Listening Test and performance on the other measures used in this study. Significant improvement was seen in both groups on achievement, psycholinguistic, auditory perceptual, neurolinguistic, personality, dichotic and Tomatis laterality measures. An overall right ear/left hemisphere advantage for language processing was found in both groups, reflecting no differential treatment effects in the area of hemispheric laterality. No differences emerged on the psychomotor, and post-treatment questionnaire measures. Differential effects of program were not seen in the present study. The empirical evidence, taken along with qualitative evaluation of the LTP subjects' experience, suggest that the school-based LTP is not of value in remediating learning disabilities. |
