Listening plays a fundamental role in the development of communication, language and learning. The child’s well-being, social adjustment and academic success are greatly determined by the quality of their listening. This may sound new for some, but it is supported by many years of clinical experience with thousands of children and adults at The Listening Centre.

Where We Come From

The Listening Centre was founded in Toronto in 1978 by Dr. Alfred Tomatis and Paul Madaule, who is still involved today. We specialize in listening training using sound stimulation (music and voice) to develop and improve the listening function. Time and time again, we observe, and families report, children becoming happier, more open, more calm, more motivated, more flexible, more able to participate socially, performing better in school, and the list goes on.

These observations are very consistent with what Paul Madaule personally experienced earlier in his life. Paul’s childhood and adolescence consisted of a long series of setbacks at school. Dyslexia affected his reading, writing, math – and he had difficulties expressing himself. Years of remedial help and therapies only contributed to making him feel more inadequate. When he reached puberty, life became hell on earth with no way out. It all changed when, at 18 years old Paul met Dr. Alfred Tomatis, who helped him with a listening training method using electronically modified sounds that he had invented. Paul was then able to resume high school, went to university and his life started to turn around. This is when he decided to become a psychologist and dedicate his professional life in helping children with listening and related issues.

What Is Listening?

The listening function is the first modality to develop in utero, forming primary connections with the developing brain. It provides the neurophysiological foundation for communication and learning by
integrating and relaying sensory information from within and outside our bodies. The listening function is the active skill that helps the child make sense of their inner and outer worlds. When functioning properly, it allows the child to be present and attend to the information they need and leave out the unnecessary or unwelcome “noise”. The listening function helps the child sort and organize this information into meaningful messages. When automatic and effortless, it is an essential component in the child’s
spontaneous engagement and motivation.

Misconceptions about Listening

The word ‘listening’ means different things to different people. As a result, it is subject to all sorts of pre-conceived notions. A review of some of these misconceptions will help to more clearly define what listening is and what it does.

Misconception: Hearing and Listening are Similar.

We are constantly bombarded with myriads of sounds coming from both the environment and our own body. This constant exposure is hearing. Unlike the eyes, the ears do not have eyelids. Instead, they are equipped with a mechanism which permits us to ‘scoop’ the sound information we want and leave out those we do not want. While hearing is passive, non-discriminate and involuntary, listening is active, and it involves the intent to reach out. This implies that hearing too much is an indicator of poor listening. For
example, we often see children who habitually cover their ears, are easily overwhelmed and hypersensitive to incoming stimuli. Another example of a poor listener is the distractible child who is unable to zoom in to the voice of their caregiver or teacher while leaving the other noises of the home or classroom in the background.

Misconception: Listening Only Applies to Sound

In addition to the cochlea, which is responsible for sound perception, the inner ear includes the vestibular system, or the ‘ear of the body’. The vestibular system is essential in supporting balance, postural control, muscle tone, body awareness and orientation in space. As an extension, it facilitates the child’s ability to experience flow in play and physical activities requiring more refined motor skills and coordination. It also influences the way our body ‘speaks’, that is, the non-verbal aspect of communication, an essential
component of social interaction.

Misconception: Listening is Only a Receptive Skill

Listening is both receptive and expressive. We know that without hearing, speech does not develop naturally. But hearing alone is not enough. The acquisition of speech and language requires a fine tuning of the auditory system to pick up the very specific sounds of the mother’s tongue. From very early on, the child begins experimenting with their voice - gargling, babbling and making all sorts of noises. They play with their voice as if it was a ball – throwing it in the air and watching how and where it falls. This play is
the child’s attempt at replicating the sounds they hear around them. Then, when the child produces something sounding more or less like “Ma” or “Da”, and their mom or dad respond with a big smile, the child learns “my voice has an impact”. As the child continues this exploration over time, they are fine tuning their ear, body and nervous system, allowing them to discover the fun – and the power - of verbal communication.

Misconception: Listening Takes Effort

Listening is often understood as the effect of concentrated attention as in “pay attention and listen!” implying that listening necessitates an effort. In reality, it is the other way around: listening should not require effort. When the listening function is working well, the child is more able to sustain attention for longer durations and does not need to “work” to stay focused. A short attention span and high distractibility are often indicators of poor listening.

Now that we understand some of the misconceptions of listening, there is more that can be said about what it is and how it impacts other functions such as muscle tone, balance, coordination, motor skills, visual-spatial and visual-motor skills. This will shed some light on how listening is involved in the development of skills such as speaking, reading and writing.

Stay tuned for our next post to learn more!