The Listening Centre

The Listening Centre is a private clinic established in 1978, using listening training - a program of sound stimulation and counseling - as the primary mode of intervention. It is the first and only clinical facility which has offered uninterrupted services in America. This approach is based on the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis, a French physician, ea... r, nose and throat specialist and developer of a therapeutic method that he named 'Audio-Psycho-Phonologie', better known now as Listening Training or Tomatis Method. Tomatis found that receptive and expressive communication, attention span, learning ability, social behavior, self-regulation, activity level, motor function and coordination are all related to ability to listen. He made a major distinction between hearing and listening. While hearing is the passive, involuntary function of sound perception, listening is active and voluntary. When well developed or well trained, the listening function allows us to focus on the sound information we need and leave out, or protect ourselves from those we don't. The work of Dr. Tomatis was already applied in Canada at the Child Study Centre, department of Psychology of the University of Ottawa under the direction of Dr. Agatha Sidlauskas and at the Toronto Montessori School (TMS).Read More