History of TSI

NACD has been involved in the field of sound therapy almost since its inception. Bob Doman, NACD’s founder, first learned of the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis around 1976 while working with children in Spain. He met personally with Dr. Morales, Dr. Tomatis’s associate, and recommended the treatment to some of his clients. After he returned to the U.S. in 1978, some of his clients traveled to Paris to go through Dr. Tomatis’s treatment upon Bob’s recommendation. Eventually Dr. Tomatis’s work spread to the U.S. and continued to grow and evolve into other methods. NACD clients used Patricia Joudry’s recordings of the Tomatis Method on tape, called Sound Therapy for the Walkman. Next we used the Berard Method, Auditory Integration Training. We administered AIT in its traditional method and then later began to modify and customize it through the use of voice analysis. When Ingo Steinbach’s method on CDs, Samonas Sound Therapy, became available, we were happy to have a method that better fit into our home program paradigm. We used Samonas for a number of years, experiencing some positive effects, but seeing negative side effects and being concerned with the lack of therapeutic structure in the program CDs.

With an overwhelming number of our clients presenting with auditory processing problems of various forms, and with the positive benefits to varying degrees that we saw from using each of these methods, we believed that a music-based auditory stimulation program was a vital part of our treatment. However we also had growing concerns with the programs that existed, mainly that negative side effects were common. It became evident that what NACD needed for its clients was a program that did not exist. And so we put together a team of professionals to create a new program with the following goals in mind:

• Cost-effective
• Accessible
• Easily implemented as a home program
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Easily tolerated by the listener, with a reduction in negative side effects seen with other programs

The primary team of professional given this task included: Bob Doman, his son Alex Doman, Dr. Ron Minson (a Tomatis practitioner), Joshua Leeds (musician, author, and lecturer on the effects of sound on the body), and Richard Lawrence (musician, composer, and sound engineer). NACD’s speech pathologist, Lori Riggs, also collaborated with the team on the technical design and directed the field test that was completed with the original program prior to its release.

And so the original Listening Program came into being. The original 8-CD program that was created by this team is now referred to as TLP Classic. Advanced Brain Technologies has gone on to produce the 10-CD program called TLP Level One. Under the supervision of Lori Riggs, NACD has used TLP Classic and TLP Level One with over 1,000 clients. We have vastly more experience with using auditory programs with children than any other single provider, having used auditory programs with literally thousands of individuals. 

NACD is in a unique position. Coming into contact with thousands of families, if we have not tried a therapeutic method ourselves, it is likely that we have heard firsthand accounts from clients who have. Our experience with The Listening Program, the numerous auditory programs leading up to TLP, our clients’ experiences with other sound therapy programs, and our experience of working with thousands of children with auditory processing difficulties has taught us a great amount about what works, what doesn’t, and what is still lacking. This has led us to the development of additional auditory programs that address very specific skills.  These programs fall under the name of TSI – Targeted Sound Intervention®.