Auditory Integration Therapy?

Since we're praying for Daniel as he starts AIT -- Auditory Integration Therapy (or Training)-- I thought it might be nice to know a little about it.

Here's what I was able to find in a brief Web search. I think there are differing techniques used, so the process described here may not exactly apply to Daniel, but it gives some idea.

Mike and Eloise can fill us in more later.

Auditory integration training (AIT) was developed by Guy Berard in Annecy, France to help people with auditory processing problems. According to Dr. Berard, processing problems may occur if one hears some sound frequencies much better than other frequencies. For example, a person may be hypersensitive to the frequencies 2,000 and 8,000 Hertz, but hear all the other frequencies in the spectrum at a normal level. The frequencies to which a person is hypersensitive are referred to as 'auditory peaks,' and these peaks take on the appearance of a mountain range in one's audiogram.

AIT is accomplished by a device which randomly selects high and low frequencies from a music source (a cassette or CD player), and then sends these sounds via headphones to the trainee. In addition, if the trainee has auditory peaks in his/her hearing (as evident from an audiogram), those frequencies are filtered out completely (blocked out) or partially (stressed at only a low level) from the music.

The trainee receives AIT twice a day, each time for 1/2 hour, for ten days. During the first five hours of AIT, the sound level for both ears is equal. For those individuals who have speech and language impairments, the sound level is reduced in the left ear after five hours of training. Since the right ear is connected more directly to the left hemisphere than the right hemisphere, and since the left hemisphere is responsible for processing speech and language, Dr. Berard believes that a higher sound level in the right ear will stimulate the left hemisphere.

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