Therapeutic Listening

Experts: Brianne Philipps OTR/L and Sue Ford MS OTR/L

Many children have difficulties managing and attending to various sounds. They miss out on valuable learning experiences in school, at home and even when playing with other children. Since these experiences help to build the foundation for how children respond to and interact in their daily environment, missing key information may increase children’s anxiety and impact how children access a world of learning for their bodies and brains.

Therapeutic Listening, an evidenced based protocol is a method that helps children learn to improve their organization and integration of sounds and their surroundings thereby decreasing anxiety responses in a variety of environments. When used in partnership with sensory based techniques, Therapeutic Listening utilizes specialized music accessed through headphones to help children reorganize how they are orienting, locating and selecting sounds.

Brianne Philipps and Sue Ford are both pediatric occupational therapists currently working for Easter Seals in Dover New Hampshire. Along with their experience with the therapeutic listening program, they work using a child and family centered approach to help children increase their ability to participate in, learn from and interact within their meaningful environments.