TLP, it’s Music to Your Ears: Support for Tinnitus, Hearing Loss, and Auditory Processing Disorders

Hearing loss, tinnitus, or auditory processing difficulties can make it difficult to interact and engage effectively in different environments. When any of these key communication systems don’t function properly, it can result in performance difficulties and misunderstanding. For example, students affected by any of these often appear “unfocused, or off-task.” Friends appear “withdrawn or not present.” Employees can appear “distracted.”

The Listening Program® is a music listening therapy program that provides neuroacoustically modified music through a structured protocol to enable the brain to better receive, process, store, and make use of the auditory information people receive in daily life.

Mandy Doman, President of ABT, has experienced this very thing in her own life.

By taking a deeper look into hearing loss, tinnitus, auditory sensitivity, and auditory processing skills, it is clear how beneficial the soothing power of TLP can be to improving overall listening and understanding of spoken language for people of any age.

Auditory processing involves the integration of self-regulation, the auditory system itself, emotion, memory, language, and cognitive decision making, as identified by audiologist Dr. Jay Lucker.

How TLP Helps People With Hearing Loss or Tinnitus

The Listening Program is recommended by hearing health professionals to preserve and make the best use of the hearing still present. It’s designed to improve the entire auditory system to be as efficient as possible and potentially prevent further hearing loss.

It’s estimated that about 1 in 5 people are affected by tinnitus, and the sounds may be described as buzzing, hissing, whistling, roaring, or chirping. Each person experiences tinnitus differently, and the cause could range from a hearing loss, an ear infection, or high blood pressure. The ringing may come and go, or it may be persistent.

While it’s essential to work with an audiologist to determine any possible health concerns and monitor your hearing health regularly, TLP has been used by many people to help improve the symptoms or irritation typically associated with tinnitus, just as Mandy experienced.

What is the Role of Auditory Processing

Auditory processing is a term used to describe what happens when your brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around you. For those with an auditory processing disorder, the ears can receive sound, but the brain has problems processing and understanding it.

Many people with tinnitus and hearing loss suffer from auditory processing difficulties because, in part, they’re having to process language and other sounds in addition to the ringing sensations that are always present. Lacking any of these skills can result in a strain on academic performance, social confidence, and work performance.

Here is a quick list of some auditory processing skills:

• Auditory memory: Recall information such as language or music.
• Auditory attention: Focus on and register sounds.
• Sound localization: Identify the location of the sound in the environment.
• Auditory Figure Ground: Perceive speech/sound in presence of competing sounds.
• Auditory closure: Fill in the missing parts of sounds or words.
• Auditory cohesion: Understand the meaning of sound.

Hearing health is an important contributor to our brain health. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have done multiple studies that show a relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline.

You can learn more by reading “Hearing Health for Brain Health and Longevity”

TLP is designed to improve auditory processing, which makes it a practical aid for those with hearing loss. It does this through numerous neuroacoustic modifications within the music of The Listening Program, designed to train different auditory processing skills, which are especially important for someone with a hearing loss or tinnitus.

One of those skills is called auditory figure-ground, an essential auditory processing skill. It helps us locate sound in our environment and filter out the sounds we don’t want to pay attention to. So, imagine how difficult it would be for someone to be in a classroom and not have the ability to focus on the teacher because their auditory system is unable to filter or dampen all the sounds from other students in the room or hallways.

TLP can improve auditory figure-ground through Spatial Surround Dynamics, which helps draw your attention to one instrument by making it slightly louder than the rest. Within a TLP module, a listener will also hear specific instruments move in a 360-degree field around their head, activating more of the brain and gently training the brain to locate essential sounds and filter out the rest. Through this training, the auditory system learns how to isolate and track a sound in real life while also helping to increase your attention on the sounds you need to focus on and reduce the other sounds in the environment.

Frequency training is another essential part of The Listening Program, which helps to improve auditory processing skills. The human brain processes sound from 20Hz – 20kHz. It is helpful to think of filtration as removing something to emphasize what remains–so attention is drawn to it. TLP uses filters to capture specific frequency bands to allow the auditory system to experience these frequencies gently and distinctly, which helps the brain identify and better process them in daily life.

While TLP doesn’t directly improve hearing loss or tinnitus, by enhancing the auditory processing system as a whole, listeners can experience more comfort, more confidence, and an increased ability to understand, process, and interpret verbal sounds in everyday situations.

Over 20 independent studies have shown precisely how effective TLP can improve many aspects of brain health, including auditory processing abilities.

In one peer-reviewed research article, published in the International Journal of Listening, the authors evaluated the results of 456 clients ranging in age from 5 to 50.

While the purpose of this study was to evaluate the measurable changes in auditory processing abilities, the changes that took place in the clients’ lives are of equal, or perhaps even more remarkable importance.

Overall, the clients in this study showed improvements in auditory processing, they were observed to be calmer, more settled, less anxious, have greater confidence and self-esteem, improved social interactions, have better outcomes in reading and spelling abilities, and have improvements in speech and articulation.

You can find these independent, peer-reviewed journal articles in the research section of advancedbrain.com.

Recommendations for Hearing Aids and TLP

For many people, especially those new to wearing hearing aids, using The Listening Program with ABT’s Waves Bone Conduction Audio System may help them have a better experience processing the new frequencies they are now hearing and adapt to wearing hearing aids more quickly.

Waves provide a multi-sensory approach to delivering music listening therapy. The combined air-conduction (sound through the ears) and bone-conduction (sound through the bones) provides a complete auditory training experience by stimulating the brain through the natural auditory pathways. Bone conduction offers a calming influence through the gentle, vibratory sensations of low frequency sounds to regulate our emotions and create a healthy relationship with sensory information.

We believe in your brain’s innate ability to change in meaningful ways. We would love for you to experience how music can facilitate the process in a seamless and enjoyable way.

Experience the healing power of music for a client or loved one with a hearing loss, tinnitus, or auditory processing disorder. With TLP, people find they remember more, can follow directions better, and experience greater thinking skills in any environment, with less distractibility.