Music is being used to improve radically the lives of children with autism, dyslexia and attention disorders. Lorna Siggins reports
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is alive and well and performing in the Connemara Gaeltacht village of Furbo . . . but his celebration there has absolutely nothing to do with the 250th anniversary of his birth.
The much-quoted Mozart effect, whereby the composer's music can help to reduce stress, improve memory and listening disorders, is having a radical impact on children with particular needs.
Until speech therapist Karen O'Connor began providing the Listening Fitness Trainer (LiFT) programme in her west Galway clinic, parents of children diagnosed with autism, dyslexia, speech and language difficulties and attention disorders were taking out loans to travel to Canada.
Now parents are travelling from all over Ireland - and as far as Britain - to sign their children up for O'Connor's programme.
"And the hardest part of it is the awareness that not all parents can afford to do this," Helen McLoughlin, a Galway-based mother of three, explains.
Her middle son had been diagnosed with autism in Canada, where she and her husband lived until their return to Ireland in 1998. His participation in sound therapy, followed by the LiFT programme, has improved his social skills significantly.
"Put it this way - I can now see a future for my son as a contributing taxpayer, rather than as a beneficiary of sheltered housing paid for by the State.
"That's why I believe the State should be encouraging and helping parents of children with particular needs to avail of initiatives like this," according to McLoughlin.
LiFT is an educational technique which uses the voice and pre-recorded music, rich in high frequency, to develop and improve listening skills.
Whereas one relies on the ear for hearing, listening is a "whole body" experience, as exemplified by dancing to music - or a teacher's ability to detect from a student's posture and facial expressions whether he or she is paying attention.
A French ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr Alfred Tomatis, is credited with developing some of the earliest methods of listening training in the late 1950s, using sound stimulation, and the Tomatis method was applied in north America by Paul Madaule, director of the Listening Centre in Toronto.
Karen O'Connor qualified in speech and language therapy in Britain and undertook postgraduate training in New Zealand and North America before returning to Ireland.
During that time she became very interested in therapeutic listening, saw the direct benefits of it when working with pre-school children in Rahoon, Galway, and signed up for training with Madaule in Toronto several years ago.
LiFT is quite distinct from other sound therapy programmes in terms of its intensity, she says, and its ability to integrate the auditory, vestibular and vision systems.
The results it achieves in terms of concentration, articulation, comprehension, expression, co-ordination and socialisation are akin to "finding the missing piece in a jigsaw" or "the key to a door which unlocks learning".
At her Kidzfirst clinic in Furbo, three young children appear to be happily playing away with toys, books and jigsaw puzzles while wearing headphones and a small backpack.
They chat among themselves, almost oblivious to the fact that each of them is listening to Mozart at a particular frequency.
The group will continue the two-and-a-half hourly "play dates" for 15 consecutive days, and there will be a second phase of 15 sessions about 15-30 days later.
The results are not immediate for some children, while other parents notice the difference after the first fortnight.
Catherine Sides, who lives in New Quay, Co Clare, enrolled her daughter for music therapy with O'Connor when she was four years old, and then signed her up for LiFT in autumn 2004 and 2005. Her daughter has no specific diagnosis, but has had language difficulties.
"It was several months later, after Christmas really, when I began to notice the benefits of LiFT, and they were quite extraordinary in terms of her improvement in language skills, reading, writing and mathematics," Sides says.
"We had one or two hiccups - when one of the CDs was changed, for instance, my daughter reacted badly. It took me a while to realise this was all part of the experience and that she would come through it in the most positive sense."
Eleanor Maher from Co Galway has two children with dyspraxia, and both have been treated with LiFT.
"I enrolled them at different times, as both have different difficulties, and both benefited pretty much immediately," she says. "Language improved, and my child with visual, perceptual and balance problems became much more aware and in control."
The cost of the programme is €1,500 in total, and there is tax relief on the expenditure.
"When I worked out what I would be paying over a period for other treatments, I realised it was well worth it," Helen McLoughlin says.
"But it breaks my heart - when we have had so many recent reports about wasted State money - to think that there are children who won't benefit because of the cost," she says.
"In Canada, parents of children with special needs are given grants, and can choose the assistance they require - because there is a recognition that it will save the State money in the long term.
"The parent does know the child best, and in my case I can only say that this particular treatment has changed all our lives."
For more information on LiFT, Karen O'Connor can be contacted at the Kidzfirst Clinic Listening Centre, Furbo, Co Galway at 086 8420062. Information on LiFT is also available on www.listeningfitness.com