Sound Therapy
Johansen Individualised Auditory Stimulation (also known as Johansen Sound Therapy) was developed in Denmark by Dr. Kjeld Johansen, director of the Baltic Dyslexic Research Laboratory, from the original work by Christian A. Volf.
JIAS has been developed to stimulate the nerve pathways into and within the brain. It is directed particularly to the pathways between the right ear and the left hemisphere of the brain, where information from the ears is first received and from there on down to the deeper processing areas.
Various forms of brain scanning have shown that this stimulation produces increased numbers of connectors in the form of dendrites and synapses. Connections within the language centres therefore speed up and are made considerably more efficient with the result that the processing of language is more efficient.
Concentration and understanding improves as information is dealt with more quickly and does not swamp the child in the way it did before. More information is able to be dealt with at a time. Literacy skills (reading and spelling) are often seen to improve as the child becomes more proficient at analysing the sound structure of words.
Johansen Sound Therapy can be of benefit to children, adolescents and adults with a variety of speech and/or language difficulties, both spoken and written (including specific learning difficulties and dyslexia). Children for whom reading and spelling are problematic often find it easier to analyse the sound structure of words, following the Johansen Sound Therapy programme. Together with good targeted teaching this can help their literacy skills significantly.
Children, adolescents and adults can benefit from the JIAS programme. For older individuals, the programme may take longer to complete than for younger people.
What Can Sound Therapy Help?
Johansen IAS can be of benefit to children, adolescents and adults with a variety of speech and/or language difficulties, both spoken and written. These might include difficulties with one or several of the following:
​
• Speech Sounds (pronouncing speech sounds correctly)
• Receptive Language (understanding of language)
• Expressive Language (speaking)
• Auditory Processing/ listening
• Written Language (dyslexia)
• Reading
• Spelling
• Phonological awareness (awareness of speech sounds)
• Dyspraxia
• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Understanding and remembering information and instructions
• Concentration
• Self confidence and self esteem
• Behavior – when it may be due to poor communication skills
• Hypersensitivity to loud or particular sounds/noises
Benefits of Sound Therapy
Some benefits may include:
​
• Enjoying conversation
• Read and spell more easily
• Coping with background noise
• Staying focused
• Remembering what you hear
• Learning new words
• Following instructions
• Listen and do
• Being more sociable
• Noticing how people feel. Notice hints
• Sing more in tune
• Pick up jokes more easily
You can find a check list for sound therapy here if you check anything as yes, call or email me to discuss how sound therapy can help or to book a free initial consultation