AUDITORY
TRAINING + EDUCATION CENTER
Sharon
Kimberley Hurst, M.S., Director
Auditory
Integration Training
Overview
Auditory
Integration Training was developed by Dr. Guy Berard, an otolaryngologist from
Annecy, France, who is now retired after almost thirty tremendously successful
years treating people who had hypersensitive hearing and/or auditory processing
problems. Half of Dr. Berard’s practice was dedicated to help, as he states,
“children who have trouble learning in school.” Their conditions encompassed
such traditional and contemporary labels as dyslexia, learning disability (LD),
attention deficit disorder (ADD), pervasive developmental disorder (PDD),
central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), autism, behavior disorder, mood
disorder and severe language impairment. It is believed that these groups have
auditory input anomalies in common; the problem may occur anywhere along a
continuum from mild to severe, with autism located at the severe end of the
spectrum.
Those
who might benefit from AIT frequently exhibit either hypersensitive hearing
and/or auditory processing disorders, which greatly distort one’s perception of
sounds. Hypersensitive hearing is a condition in which one is extremely
bothered by or unable to tolerate ordinary sounds like the wind, running water,
certain voices, road traffic, rain, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. These
individuals often perceive certain frequencies many times louder than others,
or two different messages are sent by ears hearing the world in different ways.
Common reactions may be fingers in the ears, hands covering ears, humming or
tuning out to block sounds, fleeing, head banging, yelling, and having
tantrums. It is little wonder that one cannot make sense out of what is heard!
Such distorted sensory input frequently results in arrested or delayed speech
and language development, as well as inappropriate or antisocial behavior.
As
Dr. Berard discovered in his clinical experience with several thousand patients
with symptoms of auditory processing anomalies, these abnormalities are
directly linked to behavioral and attention problems as well as speech and
language difficulties.
The
Berard method of Auditory Integration Training is currently applied through one
of two electronic devices, the French made Audiokinetron and the more recent
U.S. made BGC Audio Tone Enhancer/Trainer (BGC).
