NEW: Valerie Dejean on Irish TV (Click Here) Killian's story: Diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at three years of age Killian's parents didn't know where to turn next to help their child. But after hearing about the Tomatis Method from a friend, Robert and his wife decided to contact Cluas - an Irish owned organisation who assess children who show signs of development delay.

The Spectrum Center has improved people's lives since 1992 by providing a broad spectrum of therapeutic services. We create an individualized program for each client to enable him or her to overcome communication, behavioral, or learning difficulties. Our sensory experiences determine the way we perceive the world and the actions that we take based on those perceptions. If the incoming sensory experience is confused then our actions may be misdirected or ineffective. Through sensory based interventions we as therapists endeavor to correct how the nervous system processes the information that is coming in. The nervous system is self-correcting. It has a natural ability to heal itself. If we can give the brain the correct sensory information the nervous system can adjust its responses. Sensations are the inputs to the brain. If certain inputs are missing the brain will attempt to get its inputs another way. This may, at first blush, seem maladaptive to us. Take, for example, a child who constantly watches things spin. To us, this behavior is incomprehensible, but, from the perspective of sensory based intervention therapy, we must assume that the child's behavior is purposeful to his brain, at least...

Valerie Dejean with the late Alfred A. Tomatis at his villa in Spain (1997)

It is an effort to self-correct; to supplement the meager amount of sensory information that is otherwise being "inputted" to his brain. Thus, the spinning sensation supplements the meager "sensory diet" of other sensations.

If we can increase the input of other (more appropriate) sensations, the child's need for supplementary sensations will decrease, and the spinning will stop. You can't take something away without putting something in its place.


In treatment we try and figure out what the child's brain is trying to accomplish. Then we help him appease his demanding brain with sensory inputs of an ultimately more adaptive character.

In treatment we observe what the child is driven by. Guided by this observation we try to meet the child's need. We assume that the child himself holds the answer, and that if we pay attention, we will be able to discern this answer.

We do not attempt to extinguish a behavior. Rather we respond to a need and then lead the child to a more adaptive behavior.

Finally, the nervous system is arranged in a hierarchy. Newer skills are based on a foundation of older skills. If the foundation has holes in it, then the newer skills are on shaky ground. Treatment is aimed at shoring up the foundation. That way, the newer skills can work at their best.

The child's active involvement in the treatment is essential. The child isn't a black box with only sensation going in and behavior coming out.

There is a person, a human spirit, in the middle!

That person must be engaged in the process. It is our job, (among other things) to motivate our client to "put away the things of a child and take up the things of a man."

We employ Tomatis Method therapy in combination with sensory integration. The Tomatis Method of auditory stimulation is designed to re-awaken the ear’s natural ability to listen and ultimately stimulate the brain’s desire to communicate. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, a French ear, nose and throat specialist, spent his career studying the ear-communication connection. His research is responsible for changing the common perception of the ear as the passive recipient of sound to the realization that the ear functions as the communication control center for the entire body.

We at the Spectrum Center use Tomatis Method therapy in combination with sensory integration techniques pioneered by Dr. A. Jean Ayres. The combining of these techniques - Tomatis therapy and sensory integration - provides dramatic results for our clients.

The Spectrum Center Method involves 60 hours of therapeutic listening over a period of 2-3 months. Typically, you will visit us 10 days in a row for two hours a day and listen to music filtered through the Tomatis Electronic Ear. At the same time, we do other sensory and vestibular integrative activities, one on one, with your child. After a month, you come back for ten more days. Finally, you wait another month and return a final time for 10 days. Cost: about $7000. After that, you may find a booster loop useful about once a year for an additional cost.