Yesterday, December 1, 2012, PWD Thanksgiving Celebration was held at the Manila Zoo.

Manila Mayor Fred Lim was the guest of honor. He said in his speech the City Hall of Manila employs around 200 PWDs.

Guests and advocates who delivered messages were John Chua, A PWD Advocate and famous photographer;  Engr. Bien Mateo, Chairman of SM Program on Disability Affairs; Mr. Tony Pasia, representing all PWD Organizations.

The guests of the event were treated to intermission numbers by the ASP Dream Girls who sang a medley of pop songs, PHWHIC Kids who did a Gangnam Style dance number and the Nelmida Twins and the Ambassadors of Light who delighted the guests with their songs.

There was also a bird show c’/ Manila Zoo, Ventriloquist Show and Bubble Show .

Photography with a Difference supported the event with the participating groups:

• ADHD Society
• Autism Society of the Philippines
• Down Syndrome Society of the Philippines, Inc
• Parents Advocates for Visually Impaired Children
• Parent Council for the Welfare of Hearing Impaired Children, Inc.
• Philippine Society of Orphan Disorders

The PWD Thanksgiving Celebration was sponsored by the following: City of Manila, Kinder Zoo Adventure Jungle, Canon Philippines and SM Cares Foundation.

A few more photos here.

The word auditory pertains to hearing.

Here are a few information regarding the word auditory when it comes to learning and language development. There are several intervention methods to improve auditory training to be able to maximize the full learning potential of people, most especially those with needing intervention services. 

Aside from undergoing occupational therapy and speech and language therapy with (some) focus on the auditory processes in relation with learning and other developmental concerns, there is an alternative intervention method to improving auditory skills: Auditory Integration Training.

What is Auditory Integration Training? Auditory Integration Training is a method of retraining the ear. AIT was developed in the mid1900′s by Dr. Guy Berard. Dr. Guy Berard is a French ENT doctor who developed Auditory Integration Training to initially correct genetically induced hearing loss.

What does AIT do? AIT is one of the alternative intervention methods that parents can avail for their children who were diagnosed with special needs and needing intervention and therapy.

AIT uses filtered and modulated music to help:

1. Normalize and improve hearing distortions.

2. How children perceive sounds as they develop is very important as this can affect the way they acquire their language skills. Any abnormalities in verbal perception will result in an inaccurate imitation of sound.

3. Improve sensory processing (which is very important for children with sensory issues). Children who have difficulty integrating and interpreting internal and external sensory cues will encounter difficulty in learning to communicate.

4. Improve the ways in which the brain processes auditory information. This in turn impacts on the different areas of the brain that controls the different senses and systems of the body.

5. Stimulate the auditory (as well as vestibular) and neurological systems. The vestibular and auditory systems are closely related and difficulties in this area can impact on speech and language development.

6. Improve sensory overload tolerance and reduce self-stimulating behaviors.

7. Diminishes or resolves behaviors related to sensory defensiveness. People who are sensory defensive often react negatively to or experience anxiety to sensory input that is generally considered harmless to other people. Both painful and uncomfortable, it can impair one’s ability to attend to daily tasks. Example: a child may refuse to join a loud party, have a haircut, or be orally defensive (in the case of an extremely picky eater).

8. Improve speech and language.

9. Improve behavior and learning.

10. Improve mood and social skills.

11. Improve comprehension which impacts on learning which may lead to better academic performance.

What types of problems does AIT (plus other intervention services) help with? In 1998 the US FDA evaluated and approved Auditory Integration Training as a safe and effective way in improving impairments in auditory discrimination associated with the following diagnosis:

1. Autism Spectrum Disorder
2. Asperger’s Syndrome
3. Pervasive Developmental Disoder
4. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
5. Attention Deficit Disorder
6. Central Auditory Processing Disorder
7. Learning Disabilities like Dyslexia, Non-Verbal Learning Disorders, Language Delays and Communication Disorders
8. Those with Sensory Processing Disorders, Hyperlexia, and Sensory issues  can also benefit from AIT

To know more about Auditory Integration Training, contact Sound Therapy Learning Center

Sound Therapy Learning Center Unit 7 3rd Floor, The Promenade Building 198 Wilson St. Corner P. Guevarra 1006 San Juan, Metro Manila
Telephone: (02) 775-8100 Mobile: (0917) 887-7852
Email: bridging2worlds@gmail.com
Website: http://soundtherapy.ph/
https://www.facebook.com/aitph

A lot of people do not give importance to music as a way to to teach children with special needs.

One of the things I enjoyed when I was still teaching preschool was to include music in the day to day curriculum. There are songs to make the kids get up and play, there are songs that teach learning concepts, there are songs that helps them pack away the materials they used such as there are songs that signals the class is ending in a bit and we have to say good-byes.

I have to say that though I have very limited musical ability when it comes to playing musical instruments during those times when I was still teaching the young ones, I know that did not deter me from enjoying music with them then. I just wish I paid more attention when I was taking piano lessons when I was way younger.

Teaching children about music (and also how to play various musical instruments) is a good way for them to learn a lot of things:

• they learn to listen
• they learn to feel the rhythm, the beat, the essence
• they learn to be more sensitive in listening to others especially if they have to play musical instruments with others
• they move to the beat of the music
• they are able to distinguish similarities and differences for say for example, ultra light acoustic guitar strings or nylon strings

Music is a good learning tool and when properly used, can be a big help for the children with special needs.

Here are a few samples of songs to teach for children with special needs. 

Activities for Daily Living – these are activities that will help students with special needs to adapt to “real-life” situations like waiting for a bus ride, ordering food and preparing your own food like making a sandwich or a bowl of soup.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I got several ADHD related posts here.

Affect is the general feeling tone. We can feel the happiness or sadness of a person based on his/her affect when they express themselves. For children diagnosed with autism, however, they need to be taught how to talk differently depending on their mood because most of them exhibit monotone voice when talking.

Alternative Career Options for those who are mainstreamed but would probably have difficulty getting full academic college degrees.

Auditory Discrimination is the ability to detect differences in sounds. One of the exercises for this would be drills about homographs. More about the terms pertaining to the auditory functions in this post.

Assessment is testing and evaluation to know what kind of services are to be given to a child diagnosed as having learning difficulties.

I am sure there are a lot more important terms that I missed so I am hoping I would be able to add more to this list.

It’s April 26 today and we are halfway through our summer vacation. That fast? Yes, but not because it is summer means the children are off the books. Nope. Summer means upping the reading skills by more fun choices.

I’m sure children will get bored if they are not engaged in summer fun activities so reading, and not just clicking on those gadgets, will give them fun and excitement too. Now is the time we parents and teachers and parents lead the way and make them love reading.

I’m sure when they are adults they’d rather read fun stuff than read minute details of work-related literature like contracts, North Carolina health insurance, and manuals.

Here is a list of books for summer reading. Let’s hope the reading continues on till after summer vacation. I know *rolls eyes*, it’s 2009 but it’s still a list

Here is another reading list.

I’m not one who get books with popular animation characters because the children can watch these characters on TV so why bother have them in books? I’d rather children read books that will take them to different places, stir their imagination and make them want to read more. Or maybe be a children’s books author some day.

I’ve read about Tomatis years ago during my early foray with the web and I’ve learned from a student about Tomatis Philippines branch. Ok, this is circa late 90s. Among the so many articles I printed about special education, the one about Tomatis method was read again and again. It interested me so.

Fast forward to three years ago, I had a student who underwent a Tomatis Listening Program in Alabang. The parents were so happy with the results. They said that their child, my student, has greatly improved after she underwent a Tomatis Listening Program.

What is Tomatis Method?

The Tomatis Method was developed by Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, a French Ear-Nose-Throat or ENT specialist. The study of auditory processing and language development was pioneered by him which led to a new multi-disciplinary science called Audio Psycho Phonology or APP.

It was the Tomatis Method which led to the discovery of ear and voice interrelationship: the voice can only reproduce what the ear hears. One of the causes of learning problems is the inability to listen.

The Tomatis Method allows children and adults alike to improve their listening skills for better and improved learning skills in a non-invasive and drug-free way. This can be coupled with occupation and/or speech-language therapy and/or special education services.

Listening and communication are the targeted learning modes wherein the auditory stimulation between the ear and the voice are given focused to stimulate the ear’s ability to listen and the brain’s ability to understand what is being heard.

The Tomatis Method makes use of the Music of Mozart because of these three elements: rhythm for human balance, harmony for reaching emotions and melody for the intellect.

The Tomatis Method also uses Gregorian Chant (which by the way, our nun teachers had us learn to sing via Latin songs) because of its proportional beat that is close to the respiratory rhythm. This beat has a succession of sequences of unequal length said to be found in ocean waves that come one after the other but not identical.

The Tomatis Method re-trains the listening system through:

• use of electronically modified music and language to improve auditory information processing
• enhances the ability to know the difference between frequencies which are all necessary for language development and auditory information processing
• use of Electronic Ear

Why is Listening an important factor in Learning? continue reading this entry »