SAMONAS SOUND THERAPY
SAMONAS (Spectrally Activated Music of Optimally NAtural Structure) Sound Therapy works on the auditory system. Sound has a profound effect on living systems; however, much of the sound in our environment is acoustically toxic (distracting and stressful). The brain needs healthy sounds. A healthy diet of nutritious sounds can have profound effects on learning, communication, emotions, relationships, sleep, coordination, creativity, organization, and a general sense of well-being.
SAMONAS Sound Therapy providees auditory stimulation which re-educates the auditory pathways. SAMONAS uses classical music and sounds in nature that have been spectrally activated (specially modified to emphasize the overtones – more highs - and dampen the fundamentals – less lows) to stimulate the hearing mechanislm to take in the full spectrum of sound.
SAMONAS was developed by the German sound engineer, Ingo Steinbach. Ingo Steinbach has a background in physics and music and combines the principles based on the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis with advances in technology and physics to develop the SAMONAS recordings.

Benefits of SAMONAS:

• Better articulation
• Improved sleep
• Improved vocal quality
• Better organization
• Improved social interactions
• Increased balance and coordination
• Improved language
• Increased attention
• Improved communication
• Reduced sound sensitivity
• Increased frustration tolerance
• Better sense of time/space orientation

• Attention
• Memory
• Comprehension
• Language
• Learning
• Communication/Relationships

Hearing vs. Listening
Hearing – passive perception of sound
Listening – ability to focus on selected sounds; to choose what sound information we want to attend to so that we can process it in a clear and organized manner.

Listening is critical to learning because it is tied to attention, concentration, integration, understanding, and the retention of auditory information
Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) – is like having a bad cell phone connection

• Normal hearing acuity
• Difficulty learning through auditory modality
• Difficulty following oral directions; inconsistent response to auditory stimuli
• Short auditory attention span; fatigues easily during auditory tasks
• Difficulty understanding in the presence of background noise
• Difficulty localizing sound
• Frequently says, “Huh?” or “What?”
• Seems to “mishear” what si said to them
• Give the impression of not listening even when looking at the speaker
• Difficulty with sound blending and phoneme segmentation
• Academic difficulties (phonics, reading, and/or spelling); mild speech/language impairments
• Slow or delayed reponse to verbal stimuli
• Poor attention; easily distractible
• Comprehension compromised by not getting all the information
• Poor auditory memory
• Disruptive behaviors – distracted, impulsive, frustrated, agitated
• Reduced tolerance for loud noises or noisy environments
• History of otitis media

Characteristics of Language Processing Disorders (LPD):  need not have all symptoms

• Problems with retrieval of common words
• Use generic language: non-specific labels
• Misuse words with similar phonetic structure (such as on for in)
• Use creative language or “made-up” terms to compensate for word retrieval challenges
• Frequently says, “um,” “you know,” or other fillers to buy time
• Frequently says, “I don’t know” or “I forgot”
• Verbal repetition or rehearsal
• Inconsistent and inefficient learning. Needs a great deal of review.
• May recognize language errors but can’t fix them
• Incomplete sentences or thoughts
• Problems with social skills and pragmatics
• Disruptive behavior
• Average or near average IQ and vocabulary with academic difficulties

Auditory Processing Skills:
Auditory processing skills are basic to listening and communication. They are sequential in development, yet highly integrated.
Sensation:
The ability to identify the presence of sound
Discrimination:
The ability to discriminate between sounds of different frequencies, length, or volume (high/low, long/short, loud/soft).
Localization:
The ability to judge where a sound is coming from in relation to the listener’s position in space. Being able to determine where a sound is coming from contributes to the person’s sense of safety and well-being, orientation, social skills, and general listening efficiency.
Auditory Attention:
The ability to direct attention to relevant sound, particularly speech, and sustain that attention for an amount of time appropriate for the listener’s age level. Individuals with CAPD often lose auditory attention due to fatigue and auditory overload.
Auditory Figure-Ground:
The ability to identify and focus on the most important auditory stimulus, discriminating it from background noise. In a classroom, there are many competing noises. The student must be able to focus on the teacher’s voice as the primary signal and let other noises fade into the background. When competing noise becomes too great, or when the student’s filtering system is weak, the student may experience auditory overload and confusion.
Phonemic Awareness:
The ability to judge the number, order, and Identity of sounds in words.
Auditory Closure:
The ability to understand the whole world or message when part is missing. In noisy environments, this skill is often used to comprehend what is being said. Individuals with a rich language and experience base will find this much easier than those with weak or developing language skills.
Auditory Synthesis:
The ability to blend sounds or syllables into words. This is critical for reading.
Auditory Analysis:
The ability to identify phonemes or morphemes embedded in words. This skill is important for spelling and for distinguishing important meaning markers, such as verb tenses (worked vs. works) that may be acoustically distorted or masked by background noise.
Auditory Association:
The ability to identify and attach meaning to an acoustic signal, and associate it with its source, an experience, or a label. This is a fundamental skill for developing auditory memory.
Auditory Memory:
The ability to take-in, hold, and recall what is heard. Auditory memory skills involve both short and long-term recall. Auditory short term memory is the ability to retain auditory information that is immediately presented. Auditory sequential memory is the ability to recall the order of a series of details.