Therapeutic Listening

I am sure you are aware of the great Indian vocalist, music composer and musician Tansen. It is said that that he could create rain by singing the monsoon rag Megh Malhar. It is also said that he could create fire by singing rag Dipak.
You can visualise a mom singing a lullaby and the baby falling off to sleep.
You can picture yourself walking through a street where there is music playing. Your body starts moving to the rhythm or at least the feet start tapping.

I always knew music was so very powerful but still never used it -rather I didn’t know how to use it in therapy sessions….

When I met Kimberly Barthel in 2012, (Occupational therapist from Canada) for the first time, she introduced me to Therapeutic Listening. I found it really weird because all it involved was wearing some kind of headphones and listening to some weird kind of a music while doing sensory integration with the kids at Khushi. It was then that I didn’t know that there is a complete science behind this weird little thing !!!

I was really skeptical but thought of giving it a try. And guess what ..I started to see miraculous changes in some of the kids.

Kids started having better sleep, better eating and also got toilet trained. Some kids who would run all over the place started having better sitting tolerance. I was surprised and then moved ahead with the music selection to work on language and speech and Lo behold!

Some of the kids who had no words, started babbling!!
One’s who babbled started speaking sentences!!!
One’s who had speech started sharing experiences!!!

Now, I was getting convinced of the power of these music selections which were called as MODULATED music selections. They are called so because the music that the child listens to passes through high and low frequency filters.

It majorly helped those kids who had sound sensitivities- by this I mean kids who had difficulty tolerating pressure cooker sounds, mixer or drilling sounds. The others who benefitted were the ones who would always cover their ears with their hands. Third group was the one who were seeking sounds- either making some or the other sound with their mouth. Or dropping things or objects to get their sound.

So in short, Therapeutic Listening is an individualized program to help kids enhance their listening capabilities. It was developed by an Occupational therapist Sheila Frick.

It improves a child’s concentration and helps him to communicate with the world around him in a more meaningful way. This program uses sound stimulation in combination with sensory integrative treatment techniques, emphasizing vestibular stimulation and postural and movement strategies.

Therapeutic listening can be provided by a certified provider only. Few therapists at Khushi are certified in therapeutic listening and provide professional guidance for participating in the protocol.