Auditory Integration Training, AIT, Berard AIT, Auditory, Auditory Integration

 AIT Helps Improve the Lives and Learning of Those with Autism, ADHD, Hyperacute Hearing, Speech Delays & Tinnitus...in 10 Days.

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AIT is the #1 clinically studied auditory based educational intervention!  All sessions are conveniently completed at home under the supervision of an AIT Practitioner. AIT services are available in the USA, Canada and other English speaking countries.

AIT requires 10 hours of sound therapy, with 20 sessions of 30 minutes each, done 2 times daily over 10 consecutive days.  This listening therapy helps to correct hyperacute hearing,  tinnitus and other auditory challenges.

AIT has been used successfully with children and adults with many different diagnoses for over 60 years.  

Remarkable results are achieved for many families. There are more than 60+ years of clinical research and 28+ scientific studies on AIT.

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Headphone & Noise Cancelling Device Precautions After AIT

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Complete On-line AIT Checklist

The AIT protocol processes and filters music for a therapeutic outcome.
 Using a special device that can't go above safe hearing levels, so wearing headphones during the Berard AIT listening sessions will not cause any harm.

About The Headphones Used For Berard AIT
Headphone Guidelines After Berard AIT
Noise Cancelling Headphone Use
Headphones Allowed After AIT
Headphone Use After Berard AIT
Hearing Problems And Headphone Use

About The Headphones Used For Berard AIT

  • In Berard AIT, the headphones used are of a superlative quality. These headphones are expensive, recording studio headphones, with a good impedence at the top of the range of headphones for acoustic precision.

  • The music played back via an AIT device is electronically modulated. The person never hears the full musical (frequency) spectrum - high and low broad band filters remove either of these randomly. The music intensity is vastly different to listening to music on headphones recreationally.

  • When a person undergoes Berard AIT, the music levels are determined by means careful attention to the client's comfort levels.

  • No settings are above 80 dB's output and so the person is protected against damage to the auditory system due to sudden excessive changes in loudness levels.

  • Recreational music from headphones isn't the same. People often tolerate music far louder through headphones than through free-field listening. One of the top manufacturers of headphones internationally, Beyerdynamic, places warnings to that effect on their equipment packaging, which states that listening to music through these headphones at levels louder than 80 dB's will cause irreversible hearing loss.

  • No child has adequate audiological knowledge to know when music is "too loud" and when the headphones are on, so parents must check sound levels when allowing a child to use headphones at any time.

Headphone Guidelines After Berard AIT

  1. We recommend that headphones not be used for listening to music for about 6 months post AIT.
  2. The use of headphones for audiological testing, educational tapes, books on tape, academic lessons on computers with spoken words is permissible.
  3. Important Note: Do not allow headphones to be used by a child for listening to music, unless it is done at at a safe level, below 80 db. Parents must check the volume BEFORE allowing a child to use headphones. Parents and professionals must be cautious about headphone use for music since it has been reported that listening repeatedly to loud music with headphones can have a negative impact on AIT results.
  4. If headphones are needed in certain situations (such as while driving in the car, or for viewing the movie on an airplane, try putting the headphones around the neck and turning up the volume to a level that can be heard by the listener. This allows the sounds to be carried to the auditory system through the atmosphere, which is the way the ear is designed to work.
  5. The direct volume level that is unmoderated by environmental sound has distorting effects on the ear. Do your best to  avoid loud rock concerts, or loud parties and use ear plugs temporarily at that event if there will be extended exposure. Long term exposure to loud extended music in a disco or rock concert is considered to be in the dangerous category for hearing.
Headphones Types Allowed For Use After AIT

Noise Cancelling Headphone Use Before And After AIT

We recommend to parents that they do what they need to do until AIT, but then wean the child OFF the ear plugs or noise canceling headphones, except in situations where we would want to  protect any normal listener such as during loud performances, fireworks, etc.

  • From what we know about the low levels of the brain, mainly the brain stem level systems for noise suppression, is that in the case of noise cancelling headphones, they are kept functioning by minute-to-minute daily use. For example, using earplugs to damping noise so we can sleep.

  • But it is a little like a muscle: use it or lose it. The best research along these lines is for much more severe auditory deprivation than mere addiction to noise suppression gear. Research is done on children with severe, chronic, long standing middle ear (conductive) hearing loss.  

  • It has also been studied in lab mice that were purposely deprived of sound for crucial days of development. In the mice where one could look at structures, many brain stem cell systems were under-developed compared to the normal-hearing mice.

  • With hyperacusis or hypersensitive hearing, we have the added problem of the person's damping defense against noise which means the stiffening of the cochlear hair cells to temper the sound coming in, which causes the depressions in the audiogram or Listening Test or "greater hearing loss", when not using the ear protectors.

Dangers of Excessive Headphone Use in General

Ron Eavey, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary states:

"Using earphones for hours at high volumes basically causes '"shock and awe" to delicate hair-like cells deep within the inner ear that help the brain process sound... After years of abuse, those structures won't function anymore."

Headphone Use After Auditory Integration Training!
excerpts from "Sound Bodies through Sound Therapy" by Dorinne Davis
page 180 and 181 of this book:

Dr. Berard stressed that headphones for loud music should not be used after doing his AIT method.

Headphones are typically used for personal listening, while the average listener plays the volume too loudly. Dr. Berard's concern remains with the health of the middle ear, the quality of the headphones - and most of all the intensity of the sound coming from the headphones.

Dr. Berard describes the impact as follows: "After AIT, excessively loud volume delivered by headphones may cause a disruption in the balance established. Without headphones, the ear canal works like a shock absorber. The eardrum is the second shock absorber, and the ossicles are the third shock absorber, all protecting the cochlea. With headphones, sounds go directly to the eardrum, thereby taking away the first protector, allowing sound to attack the cochlea more directly. The headphones per se, do not cause regression after treatment. The intensity level of the excessive volume input from the headphones causes the impact on the acoustic reflex, which in turn directly impacts the cochlea."

Headphones For After Auditory Integration Training by Dr. Guy Berard

"From the moment I became interested in the problems of hearing, I have been aware of the studies by the health organizations concerning hearing deficiencies caused by wearing headphones for certain occupations.

The statistics were related to telephone operators, translators, and musicians, and even though I cannot exactly quote the results now, I remember that the people whose hearing had been impaired through occupationally-related causes could obtain an official pension. Thus, it was officially recognized that wearing headphones to listen to speech or music could lead to some hearing damage. Afterwards I was asked by several lawyers to evaluate the percentage of hearing loss of these individuals. This percentage was very different for each person, probably because of differences in the physiological and physical resistance of each person.

If it was admitted that wearing headphones to listen to speech or music could lead to some damage to normal individuals, it is obvious that someone who had been treated with AIT, who had some problem of hearing, would be more sensitive to all hearing aggressions, including wearing headphones. This is the reason why I forbid the use of headphones, or at least, if people have to do this because of their work, to minimize the amount of time for this use."

Hearing Problems And Headphone Use

Normally, when you hear sounds, such as music, talking, noises from your own behavior, songs of the birds, as well as thunderclaps, any kinds of engines or of explosions, they reach your tympanic drums after passing through a large quantity of atmosphere. This air works as a shock absorber to diminish the intensity of the impact on the eardrum.

However, when you are hearing sounds coming directly from the membrane of the headphone to your tympanic membrane, through the one square centimeter of air included in your outer ear canal, the impact is practically direct, without any possibility of easing this aggression.

This constant aggression is transmitted to the ossicles, then to the inner ear. This explains why many of people working with headphones have a trough, or drop on 4000 Hertz on their Audiogram or Listening Test, similar to that of people working in noisy factories.

On the other hand, wearing headphones eliminates all the sounds coming from outside, increasing the sounds coming from your own body, your own voice, creating a sort of echo. This aspect of the problem is more important for people wearing earplugs placed directly in the outer ear canal close to the eardrum. Then there is no more air to help the vibration of the tympanic drum and all your own sounds lead directly to the cochlea and the brain, which is not satisfactory, physiologically or psychologically.

 


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