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Berard AIT    Auditory Processing Issues and Learning

Summer Sessions will still be held.  Contact me soon to get your space

Like so many areas of learning, auditory skills are critical in the classroom or even at home.

   During my time as a vision specialist, working in public education I became acutely aware of the relationship between vision and hearing.  Research finds that processing for both senses takes place in about the same area of the brain, so it makes sense that if one is not being interpreted properly, the other might not be working either. 

   However, I was not able to find a program that would assist in the auditory difficulties like Irlen and other programs for the visual fields. 

    This concerned me because it was becoming increasingly evident to me that auditory processing problems were not only being ignored in the schools, but that there was little out there for this issue and there was a great need for auditory intervention that was equivalent to Irlen.

   It was 4-5 more years down the road before I found Berard AIT and several others, which I read about broadly, looked at them and researched on and off the net.

   

   

Many people have had great success using Berard AIT as an educational tool to enhance may skills and abilities that often challenge those with special needs in their quest for gaining knowledge, which was previously unavailable to them.  For more detailed information on the research in these areas please visit the website below.

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    Books to aid your research should include the book Hearing Equals Behavior by Guy Berard and co-authored by  Sally Brockett, which was recently republished, updated and expanded by Sally Brockett.  This new edition is also available as an e-book in English and in Spanish. Other books might include ​​​Dancing in the Rain, and/or The Sound of Falling Snow.​

Some, but not all, ideas for those who could benefit educationally from Berard AIT are listed below.  We are talking about people, kids and adults, who have normal hearing or only mild hearing loss who may have one or more of the following symptoms:

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  • Hears sounds more intensely than others.

  • Distracted by background noises and cannot focus on the speaker.

  • Answers the questions given orally wrong because they misheard the question even though they really know the answer.

  • Yells frequently and is louder than others, but they claim others are yelling when they speak normally or are speaking in a firm voice.

  • Dislikes sounds that may be annoying more than others

  • May mispronounce words or sounds like they mumble

  • Tantrums or upsets easily and requires time out to calm down

  • Has trouble finishing what they start

  • Easily distracted by noises

  • Needs repetition and clarification more often than others

  • Poor short term memory

  • Poor long term memory

  • Difficulty following family or group discussions, including classroom

  • Poor spelling

  • Difficulty summarizing a story

  • Confuses right and left

  • Clumsy

  • Messy handwriting

  • Is either over organized or very unorganized

  • Does not complete assignments

  • Avoids responsibility that requires a lot of verbal interactions.

  • May be either very active or low activity in behavior.​

  • Tires easily

  • Tends to be depressed due to feeling they can’t understand things they know are simple as they misinterpret things.

  • Delayed language development

  • Delayed speech

  • Lots of ear infections

  • Craves touching  or avoids touching

  • Likes or has to do things “their own way”

  • Must control things like whether doors are open or closed and volume or noise levels

  • Increased noise increases activity levels or causes withdrawal.

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It is how these items interact with their/your education that are of concern.  This is an educational program, which means that results will vary with each individual client, just like most educational programs.

Special ed. programs deal with  all of the above issues educationally and so do I and others who do Berard AIT. I just want to make job easier for the special educators and hopefully help you or your child get out of those programs quicker, if we work together using this great educational tool.

     Berard AIT is an educational intervention, and is not used to treat or cure medical conditions.

 

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Dr. Guy Berard, MD. ENT,  originally developed this system.  We now know this system has the ability to help with educational learning issues in the areas affected by low auditory processing ability and those who are mildly sound sensitive, or have trouble understanding what is said, even though they have  mild or no hearing loss, making hearing aids  and medical interventions useless for increasing comprehension skills. Dr. Berard learned some basic information from Dr. Tomatis, then developed his system, designed to be more efficient in cost and hours of listening.  This program has become known as Berard AIT. ​​

Assists in auditory processing issues.

Berard Auditory Integration Training is an educational sound based program, which helps the auditory processes and sensory processing in a number of individuals. Because of its potency, if you pick a program that is not carefully designed and educationally solid, there can be negative results, instead of positive ones.  It was after much research that I chose to train in Berard, and the more training I took, the more convinced I was that this, and  only two other systems, are the only ones I would associate my business with, or more importantly, use on my own family members.  (picture not of my family)

Berard AIT requires 10-12 days on site. During those days, day one involves getting settled in. The next 10 days involve two  30 minute sessions a day, during which time the earducator (seen in the picture top of next column) is something you will become familiar with.  In the best of circumstances you will have three visits with an audiologist, one before we start, one on day five and one upon completion of the program.  There are also two required parent meetings during the 10 day period, where we discuss things to expect after leaving here, and things to tell your to your child's teachers, doctors and relatives about what you learned here, so they can help you with your child's or your own educational progress.

While this dog loves Bearad-she is not included in any of our sessions when family members are not involved.

Sadly our little dog passed away this February.  She was 18 years old and is missed.

Please use the contact page to ask questions or to make arrangements for this service from this center.  Feel free to call or email me.

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