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.

Read Our Disclaimer.

• 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.

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."

"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."

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.