Bethesda, MD. 4715 Cordell Avenue, 4th Floor, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
New York, NY. 307 East 53 St., NY, NY 10022
E-Mail: info@spectrumcenter.com Phone: (301) 657-0988
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Spectrum Center, Bethesda, New York, Chicago.
Bethesda, MD. 4715 Cordell Avenue, 4th Floor, Bethesda, Maryland 20814 New York, NY. 307 East 53 St., NY, NY 10022 E-Mail: info@spectrumcenter.com Phone: (301) 657-0988 |
Most people don’t think of the eyes and the ears being connected by actually the eyes check back with the ears about everything that we see. My eyes don’t know if I am moving or the room is moving until they check back with the ear’s vestibular system to determine is there has been a change in the body’s relationship with the constant force of gravity. All of this is done very quickly and below the level of our awareness. This allows the individual to quickly detect whether he or the environment is moving. Have you ever had the experience of sitting on a train stopped in the station next to another train? As the other train starts to pull out, you experience a moment of anxiety as your body tells you that you are motionless, yet your eyes tell you that you are moving. In that instance you have a sensory mismatch, and it is a good example for how these two systems are always referencing back and forth between each other.
Tomatis referred to this as the visual integrator and it allow us to attach meaning to our visual environment. It allows us to recognize that objects are the same no matter which way they are flipped. Often when children are undergoing treatment with the Tomatis Method one of the first things they notice is improved eye contact as the eyes now have a more stable vestibular mechanism. With a more stable visual field they report that their children start to notice much more in their environments; they tend to show an increase in their awareness of themselves, those around them, they begin to study themselves in the mirror, they show an increased interest in their parents’ faces, studying their mother or father’s mouth as if to figure out how it works and they notice things that they seemed oblivious to before such as what is happening outside the car window.
For more information please see What is Sensory Integration?