The Efficacy of the Tomatis Method for Children with Learning and Communication Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

The Tomatis Method is a program of auditory stimulation and counseling primarily used to assist children, adolescents, and adults with learning and communication disorders. This treatment method was evaluated in several research investigations in the 1980s involving 231 children. The present study is a meta-analysis of data from five research studies evaluating the efficacy of this method in assisting children with learning and communication disorders. Positive effect sizes were found for each of the five behavioral domains analyzed: linguistic (d=0.41); pyschomotor (d=0.32); personal and social adjustment (d=0.31); cognitive (d=0.30); and auditory (d=0.04). These results, although positive, are limited by several factors including small sample sizes and limited use of random assignment. Still, the results suggest that effect sizes favoring children who had participated in the program were consistent with clinicians' reports of beneficial effects.