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Abstract | Summary | Original Article
The effects of Tomatis Sound Therapy on language in children
with autism.
Corbett BA, Shickman K, Ferrer E.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.2007; (epublished ahead of print July 3).
Bottom Line
This study showed that the Tomatis Method did not improve the language skills and abilities of a group of children with autism. It is unlikely that other forms of “sound therapy” would be beneficial. |
Question: Does the Tomatis Sound Therapy have a positive effect on language acquisition and use in children with autism?
Background: Children with autism can have language processing problems, the source of which is in the brain. Many children with ASD experience pain and emotional distress when exposed to loud sounds that would not cause these same symptoms in most people. Different types of sound therapies have arisen, including the Tomatis method, to help alleviate these symptoms and to improve the language perception and use in children with ASD.
Design: A cross over design randomized controlled trial. Children were assigned to groups that received either the Tomatis Method intervention or a sham intervention using similar music without the sound alterations. After a period of 18 weeks, the participants switched from the active group to the placebo group.
Setting: A research centre in California, USA.
Participants: 11 children with diagnosed autism, between the ages of 42 months and 86 months took part in the study.
Intervention: According to its developers, the Tomatis Method uses specially modified pieces of music that train the ear to modulate or “turn down” sound, thereby helping the children hear and understand language better.
Main Outcome Measures: The ADOS, Stanford-Binet Intelligence test, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), and the Expressive One Word Vocabulary Test (EOWVT) were used before, at midpoint, and after the study.
Main Results: Children receiving the Tomatis Sound Therapy did not improve to a greater extent on any measure than those receiving the sham treatment.
Conclusion: This well-designed study showed no positive effective of the Tomatis Method on language skills, general intelligence, or autism symptoms in the participants. It was a small study so it is possible that a different result could be found if greater numbers of children were studied.
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