Therapeutic Listening Program

We’ve been doing a listening program with Holds that my OT recommended. It’s not The Listening Program- which everyone asks if it is – it is similar though. It isn’t a set program like that one, the program is formatted by OT  based on a 30 page questionnaire I filled out about him. It is supposed to help with

• Attention
• Organized behavior
• Self-regulation
• Postural control
• Coordination
• Fine-motor control
• Motor planning
• Oral motor skills and articulation
• Social skills and communication
• Visual motor skill development

Anyway, so the purpose of the therapeutic listening program is to help him distinguish between sounds – neurotypical people block out background noises easily, but people on the spectrum have a hard time navigating through all that and blocking out unimportant sounds.

So the program requires him to wear big earphones twice a day for 30 minutes 3 hours apart. And it plays electronically modified music that taps into his nervous system. There’s an blog about it by a woman with Aspergers that explains it all really well. So just so I can keep a record of it, here’s what he’s listened to so far and what we’ve found.

Rhythm and Rhyme: I noticed his transitions were easier during the 2 weeks we listened to this disc. He freaked out less when I told him we needed to move to something else. But I also noticed he started biting more. He danced a lot with it too – it was very fun and bouncy.

Peach: My OT warned me that this disc could make him kind of clingy. But it sure didn’t do that. It made him crazy. Hyper crazy. We only stayed a week on this.

Early Mozart: This disc was awesome. I noticed really fascinating things, like he started hiding his cars, rather than lining them up. He NEVER does anything but line up his cars by the doorway. But he started hiding them in random places and playing with them more like you should with cars. I also noticed that he started engaging in conversation more – especially with other kids. That is a big change. He doesn’t really know what to say after he says “Hi guys!” but that will come. Him taking an interest is a big deal. He also sort of toned down on these discs. He has been much more focused. We have this dinosaur book with stickers that he’s ignored for 6 months. But on this disc he actually took an interest on his own and finished the whole book. And he has been reading a lot more.

Mozart for Modulation: We just started this disc. I will continue on this post and keep updating it as we go.

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