Feedback from Practitioners
At STAR Center our therapists use iLs for a few key reasons: it can be customized to each individual’s needs, the bone conduction delivery is a wonderful vestibular supplement, and the quality of the music is remarkable. We use iLs in most of our children’s programs, and we often send clients home with an iLs Focus system for continuation of therapy once their intensive short-term program is complete.
Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR/L, author of Sensational Kids, Founder of SPD Foundation
Our centers consistently see excellent results with iLs with regard to attention and learning problems. iLs works at a neurological level so it’s a great complement to the behavioral, cognitive and medical approaches we use at Hallowell Centers… Even the best therapy only works if you actually stick with it, so the fact that iLs is not only effective but is fun and can be done at home makes it extremely appealing.
Edward Hallowell, MD, Harvard Medical School faculty, child and adult psychiatrist, author and ADHD expert.
I have been looking at auditory processing disorders now for 28 years, and until recently, I have never seen auditory processing skills really get better. While there may be some improvement with age, the initial processing issues seem to persist. But over the last two years, while quantifying iLs and HOPE Method (sensori-motor program) results, I’ve watched children come in with auditory processing problems and leave without them…
In our data on the 29 children diagnosed with APD, all 29 went from below normal limits to at or above normal limits in the area of auditory decoding skills. These skills include listening to soft speech, listening to filtered speech (being far away from a speaker), auditory figure ground discrimination (listening in noise), and auditory sound blending (important skill for learning to read by phonics).
While all of the children showed some improvement in the other areas of auditory processing, 22 of the 29 tested at or above normal limits in ALL areas of auditory processing (auditory decoding, prosodics, integration, organization, and association) after the program…..Combining this iLs program with the HOPE Method… I just think the results are startling… I am beside myself!!
Aimee Levin Weiner, AuD
Just wanted to pass on a story for you of one of my clients working on the iLs program. First of all, when the mom told the teacher that her child would be working on this, the teacher’s response was something like “Well… I guess if you want to waste your money…” Recently, the mom came to an iLs session and told me that the teacher is amazed at the progress in his reading. We have begun the last phase of the program and are now firmly working on the expressive component. The mom was happy to report that he is also losing his anxiety around strangers and doesn’t hang on to her like he used to. At a recent party he only clung to her for a few minutes and went right off and played with the other kids. Needless to say, mom is ecstatic about the changes!!!
I just had to share the good news!
Dawne Roy, Literacy Coach
I just wanted to reply to you to let you know what great results we had with iLs. My name is Ann Webb and I have been a pediatric nurse for over 20 years. My daughter was given auditory processing testing at school and was deficient in many areas. When I asked the school for ideas to help her improve, the special education team really didn’t have answers. I started searching the internet and decided to try iLs.
We’ve had great results at our school (Compass Montessori in Wheat Ridge) using iLs with kids ages 5 to 12. The most noticeable areas of improvement were organization, hand writing, reading and behavior. A lot of the kids would ask to do a session if they were getting “stressed out”. My five-year old son is in preschool and within a couple months went from not reading to reading kindergarten books.
We are in the process of putting together the objective data (pre- and post-program standardized state tests) and really feel like this was a great experience.
Sincerely,
Ann Webb, RN
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to pass along this information about a training that is going to be held on July 18 in Framingham. I have taken this training a few times as well as the longer 4 day training to become a listening technician at the Hallowell Center. This program is 3 times more of a program than the old AIT you may have used or heard about because of the bone conduction and movement component. Plus AIT is just done in too short of a time period to receive the full results.
I cannot say enough how the Integrated Listening Systems has help my family and me. In a few weeks my son will be completely off all medication, he no longer yells when we are right next to him, and his writing output has improved dramatically. He also has improved eye contact, social skills, and self confidence. He actually read out loud to me a whole 200 page book. He sings all the time and is so happy. All 5 of us in our family use iLs and we all have seen results.
In myself, I see my sleep has improved as well as my attention, focus, self confidence and mood. I even play the music through speakers in my office to help me keep focus to the task at hand, as a result it helps me be more productive.
For all the children/adults you work with iLs will benefit especially those who had frequent ear infections or conductive hearing loss.
The staff from OTA Watertown was in my original training class so if they are using this system….
The cost of one of the units and the training will be made up with the first child who benefits or with your own personal use (for some of you).
Please feel free to share this email with others you know who may benefit or may be interested in this training that is for professionals only.
I know this unit can help reduce the costs of special education and make other therapies more effective.
Rebecca Goniwich, iLs Trained Therapist
I wish I had 12 of these Focus units in my office!
Diane Droescher, OT
Hi Suzi,
I have been using sound therapy for many years in my practice with children and teenagers with learning difficulties. Over the past 2 years I have switched to the iLs Systems and have found they give excellent gains to students with auditory processing difficulties.
I have been using this system in a school setting, running a pilot Research programme for children with literacy difficulties ( many of whom have underlying auditory processing difficulties). The early results are exciting and show more gains over a 20 week period than I expected so I am calling on other local schools here to join the study so that we can have a wider base (currently 24 children). In the SCAN C test results we found for example gains in Auditory figure ground of over twice the percentile
points in the therapy group (17 percentile point gain) compared to the control
group ( 7 percentile point gain). In our reading age testing we found an
average increase of 25 months in the therapy group compared with 6-month
gain in control group over a 6-month period of therapy.
I find the teens respond very well to the intensive programme, they enjoy the 15-minute movement programme which accompanies each session and then simply relax into the listening.
I suggest you contact the iLs home office in Colorado ( I am assuming you
are in the USA from your email) who will be able to tell you when and where
you can train in the USA.
It is a very exciting field and I wish you all the best.
Kind regards,
Rosemary Murphy
Developmental Learning Centre
Tauranga
New Zealand.
Just wanted to pass on that we just began our two-hundredth client. He started on our two-and-a-half year anniversary. Who knew we’d come so far so fast? We feel truly blessed to be doing what we do and are thankful every day for the opportunity to change lives. We cannot thank all of you enough for your on-going work and support.
A. Freer, iLs Trained Therapist
We continue to have many cases from local and overseas coming for iLs during the last few months. Clients from the youngest of age 4 to a little older of age 60 have come to us. For overseas clients, this June we have cases from Beijing and last Christmas we had from Australia. You know, all the cases just came by the words of mouth. We don’t need any advertisement. You can see the power of iLs. Here I would like to express my thankfulness again for you teaching and support for helping me to bring iLs here.
I found that iLs is especially powerful for autistic and dyslexic children. Autistic improve a lot in social and expression whereas dyslexic improve a lot in spelling and focusing. Along with the parents’ effort in the improvement of parenting, children who have emotional problems become more expressive and happy. Some of the cases who had finished the program in the last summer reported that they continue doing well in their school.
For adults who have depression, postpartum, and panic attack report good news as well. I do both psychotherapy and iLs for adults. You can see some of them reduce or even do not need to use medication. One of the clients who had finished the program in the last summer said goodbye to her chronic depression after psychotherapy and iLs. And two male clients found that they have more hair after listening I think they cope with stress easier than before. We are pleased to see the power of the co work of psychotherapy and iLs.
As a new practitioner, I still have a lot to learn. For examples, clients with manic episodes, pain disorder, and teenage with rebellious behaviors are the areas which I would like to learn more about.
Best wishes, J. Lamm
Hi Dr. Minson-
Hope you’re doing well. I wanted to touch base with you regarding my 2nd case study, Anastasia. She has completed 15 sessions with SI bandwidths, FSM & EHS. She has made the following progress:
-She has begun dressing herself independently
-She has become more easy going , organized & cooperative per clinic observations & Mom’s report
-She is completing bilateral coordination tasks with far greater ease
-She has become more attentive to her surroundings & now is beginning to appropriately follow conversations with others & contribute
-She is now noticing when others are speaking to her from other rooms & will ask “what?”
-She is showing improvements in recognizing boundaries for writing capital letters
For her gradual filtration stage I was planning 10 sessions, 111(10) >7. This is to give her more time with each of these frequencies considering her complicated history & significant processing deficits. I would like to maximize her time with SI bandwidths to assist in addressing remaining vestibular processing issues. Her balance will remain at 0 due to her history of seizures, I will set the bone conduction at 2.
Hope I’m on the right track! Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
NK, OTR/L
Dear iLs,
Our gains were so dramatic that our principal will buy 2 units for next years’ use. We will need some type of bill of sale so we can submit it. We are thinking of doing some type of lab next year with intense 6 weeks sessions.
Probably our most dramatic case was with our student with autism. He read on grade level with 100% comprehension on his assessment last week. He also does not get car sick anymore. I have to test this student but have tested the other four students who all had very dramatic changes on the Beery’s three subtest.
We will be running kids during the school day next year, and I have some questions about other activities they might do while listening. When is a good time to reach you to discuss by phone?
We are so excited about the results at our school!
Ilyne Engel
Physical Therapist
Adams 12 School District, Colorado
Throughout my career as an Occupational Therapist, I have had the opportunity to have first-hand experience with multiple auditory stimulation programs. I have always seen gains in my clients when their sensory-motor interventions are supported with “listening therapy”; however, I can unequivocally say that iLs stands far above the rest in terms of measurable, functional gains with a wide variety of clients. Not only have we seen consistent improvements in listening and specific auditory processing skills, we have also witnessed changes in motor components such as balance and coordination, improved overall organization and regulatory skills as well as gains in academics such as decoding and reading comprehension.
Parents have even reported spontaneous changes in articulation and I was personally saddened when one my clients requested ‘chocolate’ instead of ‘chocolick’. I am very excited about the amazing changes we are seeing in our clients since we have implemented iLs into our intensive sensory-motor programs.
Julia Harper, OTR/L
Therapeeds, LLC
Cooperstown, FL
Four years ago I began using EEG/Neurofeedback with my special needs students. They made steady progress, overcame vulnerabilities to seizures, became more focused, gained flexibility in their thought processes, and became more self controlled, but it took many sessions. Some were carried over to an additional school year to make the kind of gains necessary to succeed in school. Even with the length of time it took, EEG has great merit and is an educational intervention I will continue to use. This year iLs was added to our program and I saw gains that amazed me. In a fraction of the time EEG took to affect minimal change, iLs has enabled students to perform in a classroom setting, negate the need to have one on one instruction, loose a severe case of dyslexia and surprise a physician with a significant reduction of medication. The gains were more significant, deeper and much faster than I had experienced with EEG. I will use iLs as my primary intervention tool from this point forward.
Roberta VanHouten, R.N.
Neurodevelopmental Program, Hope Charter School
Winter Garden, Florida
iLs has been an excellent addition to our practice. We feel it is one of the most powerful tools for treating sensory and auditory processing disorders. The changes we see in the children we work with continue to amaze us!
Michelle Herman and Lisa Leyden
Dynamic Development Pediatric Services, Inc.
Bethesda, MD
As a pediatric occupational therapist who has been practicing for over 25 years, I am continually amazed at the effectiveness of the iLs equipment with children on the autistic spectrum, who have sensory integration disorders, language based and non-verbal learning disabilities as well as other developmental delays. This equipment facilitates growth and development in the areas of motor skills, language/communication and social skills at a greater rate than any modality I have used. It is also a pleasure being associated with the Center for Inner Change, iLs’ “sister company”, and the Minsons, who offer a wealth of knowledge and experience with care and integrity. I would recommend the iLs training and equipment to any practitioner who is interested in developing their practice with this exciting, state-of-the-art technology.
Diane Levinson, OTR/L
Project CHILLD, MA
Integrated Listening Systems has been an integral part of our practice. It has enriched and enhanced the entire therapy process – a powerhouse when combined with sensory integration. Using the auditory and vestibular channel through sound therapy has been the missing link to integrating and organizing the body. The results have been phenomenal!
Melissa Chaikin Kahn, OTR and Barbara K. Burton, OTR
Sensory Self, CT
I am a speech-language pathologist and have specialized in auditory processing disorders for 16 years. My number one preferred therapy has always been the Lindamood-Bell programs and no other therapy has ever lived up to my standards until iLs. I now use a combination of the iLs and Lindamood-Bell therapies together which has produced far better results than with the Lindamood-Bell programs alone. My clients learn to visualize much faster which leads to significant improvements in their comprehension and memory in a much shorter time than with my previous techniques. I also commonly see improvements in some visual skills, auditory discrimination skills, writing, thinking processing speed, attention and focus, balance, coordination, listening in background noise, listening to muffled speech, reading, spelling, some improvement in math and overall confidence.
Certain clients have exhibited improvements other than those listed above but in my practice these are the most common improvements. Having a tool that can address areas that I was unable to reach before has been very exciting as a therapist. iLs is also pleasant and easy. Previous to incorporating iLs the therapies utilized in my clinic were demanding and hard work for therapist, parent and child. Although I still use these techniques, I use them in a modified form and do parent teaching so parents can use these tools at home. The children need much less practice with the techniques because iLs has increased their skills and abilities so that everything taught to them is learned more easily and rapidly. iLs is also a great tool for increasing speech and language skills. I had a four year old boy who spoke in one word utterances, was unintelligible to those outside of family members more than 50% of the time and was not toilet trained.
I have personally found that the effects of iLs are greatly enhanced when incorporating other therapies along with it, however, we did nothing but iLs with this little boy. By the end of the program his speech improved by 50%, he spoke in 3 to 6 word sentences and he was toilet trained. He also exhibited much more confidence. I highly recommend iLs to speech-language pathologists and every other type of therapist. It truly is a highly effective, fun and pleasant therapy. It has changed my life as well as many of the lives of my clients.
Janell Schicker, M.A., CCC-SLP
