Using Ease for Behavior & Flight/Fright

Here is a way to help a child with poor self-regulation (think of a wiggly, inattentive sensory child with or without autism or of a child who is alarmed by loud noise). The type of therapy I'm describing is a lite-version of sound therapy and can be done at home or at school over a period of several weeks. The product is called EASE and is modulated music on a CD (there are a variety of CDs). It is available to parents and therapists at Vision-Audio.com.

Protocol
As a protocol, the child listens to music 2x/day for 20-30 minutes, 5-7 days per week. Separate the 2 daily sessions by 3 hours or more. The volume should be set low - that is, no higher than what is needed for the child to comfortably hear the music.

Try not to use the disks too close to bedtime as the music may be alerting. Use each disk for about 2 weeks. You can rotate the disks in and out of a long-term schedule, or do a few weeks of music and then more later as needed.
 Always do a 5-minute test before starting a program. Have the child listen to music for 5 minutes, then wait 24 hours before doing any more. If there are any emotional outbursts, mood changes, or unusual behaviors during that time, do not continue therapy unless you are well-versed in sound therapy and know your way around this.  

Do not do sound therapy if the child has a history of seizures, depression, mania, bipolar disorder, or some type of psychosis – including hearing voices.

Purchasing Equipment

Purchase Ease 1 or 2 for starters and then if it appears to be working, purchase additional disks. Ease 3 is typically used for children with attachment issues. Ease 4 has especially good 3-D auditory enhancement properties. There are many disks available.

You will want to buy good headphones. Do not use Bose - they filter out the modulated music sounds. Two good choices are Sony 7506 (about $100) and the relatively childproof Sennheiser HD 500A (about $150). Both are available from on-line sources. Get a good CD Player with random-access play. I like the Sony's that are available for about $25. Putting the player in random-access mode will help keep the music from getting boring. Make sure that Mega Bass is OFF. It is harmful to ears.

By the way, Vision-Audio also has 3-D video games which can help with auditory and visual sensory integration.  There is also a very powerful iPod app available to therapists to use with clients.