Hi Bill,

My daughter is 3 and has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, cortical visual impairment and global developmental delays. She is non verbal but very sociable. She has been listening to the free Ease CD every day for 18 months and loves it!

She had (was born with) a very exaggerated startle response that did not resolve as she grew older. We even had an EEG as we thought it may be seizure activity – Thankfully it is not.

She listens to her Ease CD first thing in the morning, every morning. Her startle reflex has almost completely resolved and she now only startles when appropriate.

She loves her music and is very out of sorts if she has to miss it for whatever reason. She listens patiently between songs and then gives sounds of glee when the new song starts. Some songs she prefers and she is consistent in showing more approval for the same songs.

Even though she is still non verbal she has developed so many more sounds.

She doesn’t enjoy long car rides – who does? – and I usually play her nursery rhymes in the car to keep her calm. It works but I thought it would be far more beneficial to listen to another Ease CD.

Please let me know if this would be appropriate for her.

Hi Bill!

For about a month or so now I have been listening to my 5 EASE CD’s (2 old, 3 new) on shuffle via my Ipod Touch (properly transferred of course) with HD500A Sennheiser headphones for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night, both while doing computer work or regular inside household chores.

The changes I have noticed in my hearing sensitivity have been greatly positive and much similar to the results I achieved a few years ago with the same program but only 2 CD’s.

A few observations from my perspective:

– Listening to the Ease CD’s now feel normal to my brain, they did not when I started.

– Real life and Ease CD sounds that were once disturbing are drastically reduced in frustration level. Oddly enough, some are even welcome to my ears.

– My brain has appeared to have learned to “balance” the disturbing noises. Previously my left ear perceived hearing (which has the most sensitivity and tinnitus) was absorbing the brunt of the noise, now the right perceived hearing is absorbing the load. It’s as if the noises are in stereo, vs. mono overweighed in the left ear. It is almost like the right side has been “recruited” to help the left side.

– After a few days of listening, I felt some changes going on in my brain. One weird thing that happened was I was talking on the telephone in a concentrated mode (not during CD listening) and was walking clockwise in a circle, something I never do as I always walk counter clockwise.

– Sounds like silverware clinking are not resonating as bad like they formally were.

– The sound of my 3 and 5 year olds screaming at the top of their voices right in my face still is extremely annoying, for more than just hearing reasons 🙂 , but I have been able to function much better with the more common high pitched frequent sounds of their voices.

– I really enjoy the water sounds and dolphins and whales and crickets type background tracks.

– I really love listening to the tracks that have some appear to have a lot of concentration on what I believe might be the higher frequencies (for example Ease CD3, track 6 and track 12) or at least the noises that sound like fire crackling or random tapping or a “tissst tisst” type sound.

– It really helped me to be able to be portable in my listening; it gave my mind the ability to just let the Ease CD’s to their thing and not concentrate on what I was hearing.

One other thing I noticed was an experience while at a baseball game a month ago. While sitting in the 4th row near the backstop area, I noticed a sharp loud gun pop type noise that made me look to the right into the right field stands to figure out where the noise came from. I did not notice anything until I saw that the noise actually came from straight on in front of me on the field. This to me served as an example of my right side hearing perception pulling its fair share in interpreting intrusive noises and my brain still getting accustomed to the rebalancing.

I also noticed that the fireworks afterwards were easier on my system and there were no noises that bothered me whatsoever. The fireworks were even easier to experience visually as unpredictable bright flashes have always seemed to bother me, like waiting for the firework to explode in the air, or nightclub strobe lights.

A therapist I know is trying to promote some adult auditory therapy. I will be sharing with her my observations as well. I do not know, but maybe there might be some mutual interest between you and her on the topic of adult auditory therapy. Just thought I would mention it in passing for now.

John

Hi Bill,

I work for the St. Louis County Special School District as a support staff person, meaning I am an assistant to the lead teacher. I was in charge of my own classroom in general education for 17 yrs., but decided 3 years ago to take a support staff role. I do enjoy not having all the paperwork! Anyway, I was planning on having the director of our region, approve the CD’s before I used them. The lead teacher in our room was all for it anyway because she trusts me and she has a nephew who is on the severe part of the spectrum for autism.

Our student, who I’ll call D is not diagnosed as yet except as a child with developmental delays. He will probably be diagnosed with ADHD. He has emotional issues, too, but they do not like to diagnose a child so young with emotionally disturbed. He is almost 5.

Two weeks ago, he was so out of control we couldn’t keep him in his seat. When we put him to the floor he was squirming, kicking, feet and hands going everywhere. I had to remove him from our language circle. We can’t restrain unless absolutely necessary and we weren’t at that point. Restraining is a huge deal and he wasn’t hurting anyone so I picked him up and had to practically drag him over with my hands under his arms. He’s little for his age. I had him in an area where he couldn’t see other people or hurt himself. He gets mad very easily and he wouldn’t calm down. We got what’s called a “weighted blanket” and he continued with the “out of control” behavior with me.

I decided to try your CD’s. Carol the lead teacher agreed with me. I put the headphones on him and had him sit in a chair. He was very open to putting the headphones on and I told him to listen to the music. As soon as I put them on, he immediately stopped all of the above behavior! I gave him a book just to look at the pictures. His heart stopped pounding and his whole body became relaxed. It was amazing to me and the other staff in the room.

Then, I had him listen to the CD under the weighted blanket. He stayed awake, but he was peaceful. He stayed like that for a good 15 min. We had him get up for bathroom and snack. We have center time after snack. While he started his center time he went over and got the portable CD player himself and started listening to it while at a center.

I had him use it the following day. It helped again. I will be starting him again with the CD’s on Monday. I also am starting one of our morning students on them. D is in our afternoon session. I will be gathering data for my own personal documentation along with having it for our regional director. I want to show her the data to back the importance of these CD’s.

The thing is D is not a child with autism, but benefited from the cd’s. We have several children with autism just in our 4 classrooms within the Early Childhood Center. There are so many more students that these cd’s could benefit and my dream is to see the cd’s approved by our director and offered to each classroom.

I know I was wordy, but I thought you’d be interested in the details.

Mary

Bill,

You may be interested to know, that I am using EASe 4 from my clinic with a little guy who started showing delays after receiving his 2 year vaccinations followed by an asthma attack and other immuno problems. He immediately went into a regressive autism type state. We’ve been doing some homeopathic creams and SI work and at about week six, his language started diminishing. I put the EASe 4 on an iPod and he’s already showing improvement within just three hours.

Hi Bill,

I just wanted to give you an update since we last spoke. Your EASe CDs helped this little guy so much, I ended up going to Houston to get the certification from Sheila at VS. Not only that, but his mom was so inspired she has started a blog to document his healing and my husband and I have a major project in the works that will hopefully help even more people in this same situation. Lyndsay’s blog had 1,200 hits yesterday. I am getting the word out about your wonderful program.

Thank you. You have impacted lives this week through your one act of generosity a few short months ago…

Blessings,

Marti
Blog posting
http://thestradtnerfamily.com/findingournewnormal/?p=176

Case history of Y. T. Ukraine.

By: Bozena B. S.

I have chosen another child to write you about, yet I know very well that all the children
I work with in various countries who are on the EASE AIT have benefited greatly from this
program. Y.T. is presently a 13 year old child with not only a brain injury but a rare metabolic
disorder: atypical PKU. For many years she was on my home based neurological organization
program which changed her greatly. Y.T. went from a non mobile child to a crawling, creeping,
self feeding, able to play, more intelligent, happier person.

As a trained therapist I was aware of the fact that Y.T. would benefit from EASE CDs
since her sleep cycle was greatly affected by sounds. Her auditory hypersensitivity was also
liked to her extreme emotional states. It is thanks to Vision Audio and their kindness in making
the EASE CDs available to the third world countries I work in, with great consideration for the
economic differences that I was able to apply this therapy with Y.T. The results were easily
visible since they were added to Y.Ts’ program after the home based program was in gear for a
while.

Understanding the processes that occurred in this case it is clear that with the change
in auditory tolerance and decreased hypersensitivity Y.T. became less agitated in changing
varying auditory environments. She was able to fall asleep faster. She began to understand
the speech because she could concentrate on that which irritated her prior to listening to the
EASE CDs. Y.T. continues to benefit from this program after being on it for 3 years due to the
variety of EASEs that you company has developed. She continues to produce more and more
meaningful sounds. I believe that your program does not supplement what I do but compliments
it.

The children I work with have varying diagnosis, from Down’s Syndrome, Autism
to Cerebral Palsied and other rare diagnosis due to toxic exposure in their regions of the
world. There is no quick solution to their problems, however with continued increase in the
understanding of sensory and it’s connectivity to physiology, cognitive and motor development it
is evident that we are making gains through such cooperation as your company has offered.
It is very evident to me that when the auditory pathway leans towards the more normal range
of acceptance the benefits are numerous and all valuable to anyone who appreciates any
neurological gains.

I want to thank your company for the support you have show to those children in need of
Auditory Intervention Therapy.

Sincerely
BBS

(Phyllis)

Dear Bill,

The little girl in the photo is Alina. She was a twin steal that means she
was one of fraternal twins. Her brother got all the nutrition and she hardly
had any during her gestational period. This little girl was brought to me
when she was twenty-two-months old and weighed only eleven pounds. She was
blind, deaf, had a cleft palate, and was diagnosed with agenesis of the
corpus callosum. Alina was a sweet little floppy mite not much bigger than a
three month old with a very poor prognosis: failure to thrive.

Mom spent all day trying to feed Alina. The doctors wanted to put a gastric
tube in her stomach for mechanical feeding which mother resisted vehemently.
We gave Alina sensory stimulation and patterning, and masking. (Her mask was
the size of a plastic bead bag used in jewelry shops.) She had one of the
smallest faces I have ever seen. Because Alina had huge problems with her
sensory hookup to her motor output we decided to use the EASe Discs to
stimulate her autonomic nervous system through her hearing. We knew that
stimulating the vagus, 8th cranial nerve would enhance her cortical
alertness and we hoped it would also help her digestive tract. This little
girl needed to see, hear, localize her mother’s voice, eat, and be awake,
yesterday! She also had a huge problem controlling her body temperature and
was frequently ill, and hospitalized. Her life was quite fragile, but her
Mother was willing to do anything to help her daughter.

Our major program emphasis was nutrition; feeding Alina all day if
necessary; then visual, tactile and auditory stimulation. She was too young
neurologically to wear headsets. It frightened her too much to have anything
close to her ears. For her first ten months she listened ambiently but with
her head lying on the floor in the middle of the speakers’ range right by
her ears. We combined as many sensory modalities as we could with sound to
alert her to everything we did for and to her.

Alina made enormous changes in six months. She could begin to search and
look around and localize her mother’s voice. She could hear at near point
range. She was still limp as a rag doll but she gained a little weight. Mom
was confident now that she just needed more time working with her and she
would handle her food even better the next time.

At her third visit she could see her mother looking at her without saying
anything to get her attention. She would stare at her for a few seconds and
then smile broadly when she recognized her. Mom was ecstatic after waiting
almost two years for her daughter to smile to her smile. Her Mother was so
thrilled that she often just gazed at Alina smiling back at her. Also, for
the first time Alina could hear when someone called her name. She was much
more alert.

She did Ease one and other EASe discs again ambiently and when she returned
after the next six months she could her herself making sounds. She vocalized
often, but interestingly, the sound of her own voice in her head bothered
her, even when she made happy sounds. She would screw up her face and start
to cry. By this time she was talking with her eyes, charming everyone in the
room and babbling with more control of the sounds. She could sit up now and
hold herself upright. If you put her on the floor she moved her arms and
legs in imitation of the cross pattern but did not quite have the power to
go forward as yet. Her tactility was more defined. She liked certain
textures and dolls.

Now she weighed between 17 to 18 pounds, which for Alina was a lot. She was
eating more variety of food and tolerated slightly different textures. Her
Mother was no longer worried about her eating enough or digesting. Alina was
now a real child, and no longer a tiny waif hanging onto life. She could
point to what she wanted and she clapped her hands with joy. Her body
temperature was more controlled. She understood more short phrases in the
household.

In the picture you have of her, we have had to wrap a bath towel around the
head sets to keep them on and have the ear pieces fit over her ears. She now
tolerates them and loves the auditory program. She relaxes deeply when she
does she listens to her CDs. It has been a major tool to bring her forward
to life.

Her hearing has had wonderful stimulation from the Ease series. The special
random gating effects have supplied Alina with sound frequencies that have
changed her autonomic performance in sleep/wake cycles, hunger/thirst,
breathing, elimination and digestion and her temperature control. All the
basic homeostatic processing that well individuals take for granted, Alina
has had to work hard to attain.

The EASe selections have stimulated her sense of upward and forward movement
at the most primitive levels where she is disorganized. Her interest in
moving forward has increased because her hearing and understanding of sound
and localizing it give her a sound filled world to explore. Alina recognizes
the voices of all the family members. She no longer is so upset with the
sound of her own voice.

As a therapist of many years, I know how difficult the road to developing
normal sensory function can be. For me, the EASe discs cover our efforts to
stimulate like a river of sound that gets into the nooks and crannies of
sensory processing to give a child more substantial performance in a shorter
period of time.

No one knows the severity of Alina’s agenesis of the corpus callosum.
Children like her blossom with intensive early stimulation, and the EASe
discs help them to align their lower brain levels with cortical
communication across that fibrous bundle so critical for human intelligence
through left/ right storage and retrieval in the human brain.

On behalf of Alina’s Mother and her aunt, who do her program daily, and all
the children of Nicaragua who are listening every day to EASe discs, I
extend their gratitude to you, Bill, for engineering a simple tool that has
the power to bring so much healing to profoundly brain-injured children.
Keep up the great work!

All the best!

Phyllis K. L.

Dear Bill,

I think it is helpful to have the background on my child before I encourage you. J My daughter is 3 ½. She started showing signs of sensory defensiveness at the age of 2. She has been to many specialists and children’s clinics but does not have a diagnosis. She has been doing physical and occupational therapy since 1 ½ years and started speech therapy at 3 years. Her MAJOR struggle is with auditory defensiveness. She cries and screams and panics anytime a child (especially a baby) cries. It could be next to her or on the other side of the grocery store. Her previous struggles that each took about 3 months to get over have been the turn signal in the car, music at stores, the vacuum, the blender and so on. The children’s cries, however, she has not been able to integrate for at least 2 years. I believe that the concentration that it takes to always be on guard for offensive sounds has been a major contributor to her delay in motor skills and speech patterns.

A month ago we started the EASe CDs. She immediately liked them to my surprise. Her breathing got very deep and relaxed and we did stickers together. Previous to this, my daughter was spending most of the day with serious behavior problems, not wanting to go to bed, not sleeping at night and generally being terrified of her baby brother (age 1). After two weeks she got sick with the flu and an ear infection so we stopped the CDs for a week of recovery.

When we started the CDs again (it’s been 10 days now since the restart) a new child began emerging. Her whole persona has brightened. The serious behavior problems are under control. No more screaming and shaking the moment a baby cries. She still is frightened and needs to be encouraged, but her response is controlled and it takes much more crying to really frustrate her to the point that she falls apart. Her personality has taken a 180 degree turn to happy and content which is the best benefit so far. Another unexpected benefit is that her speech has improved. She has always had a good vocabulary but has not always used it effectively or logically. Now she is putting words and ideas together and interacting much more age appropriately. Her eye contact has improved to the point where you would hardly know there had been in issue, and she gives affection much more spontaneously. Her preschool teachers have noticed improvements socially and verbally.

We are looking forward to what continues to emerge over the following months as we continue to use these CDs consistently as directed. Who knows if this is a cure, but it is a welcome relief to our family. We feel like we finally are getting our child and our lives back.

-Natalie

(Mary)

Bill, just had to follow through and let you know “what a difference 10 days make”. I am astounded at my son since the start of his CD experience. Tonight, he called me a stinker with a huge grin on his face. We were actually able to jokingly banter back and forth in a simple manner and he topped me with the “stinker” label. Something I call him at times. I had borrowed this CD from a friend but will order my own. What is the usual schedule? We did 30 minutes twice a day for 10 days. How long till I can do it again? I kept it a secret from his therapists and my outside family and they just kept commenting on how “connected” he seemed to be. As well as more verbal with better clarity of speech. I’m definitely sold! Thanks for your help.

Mary

William Mueller wrote:

Dear Mary:
Even though you forwarded your question to Z.L. I thought I should answer a question about EASe. First, we are always thrilled to hear about remarkable results with EASe. Second, an ear infection can cause pressure buildup in the inner ear and so create resistance to normal function of the ear drum. The transient signal of EASe and AIT pushes with force on the eardrum. If the ear canal is blocked, pain can result. If your child is not uncomfortable then his canal seems to be clear. In any case, it is better to error on the side of caution and refrain while the infection is active. If you are borrowing the disc and are in fear of losing you place in line, send me your address and we will provide you with another when your son’s ears are healed. If you own your disc, let it rest a couple of weeks and you will get even better results.

Sincerely
Bill Mueller

Bill, I didn’t mean to step on toes here, I didn’t have your address and didn’t know which list you are on. I just responded to the other post because it was easier. I have borrowed this CD from a friend and I know that
she needs it back soon. I am planning on purchasing my own since I now know it will work for my son. I just hate to stop with the good results I am seeing. One of his tubes is out and the surgeon plans to replace it
since he continues to have infections. We may have ear tubes for some time to come. As long as he is not experiencing pain or discomfort(which is pretty obvious since he dances along with the “music”)can I continue? I am on day 4 with extraordinary results. One therapist has been gone for 10 days on vacation and returned today. She didn’t know I had started this. Within 20 minutes of the session, she was back in the
house so excited she could barely talk. My son is talking with complete sentences and using words not learned in sessions. He seems happier and so much more connected with the world around him. The only different thing I’ve noticed on the negative side is that he seems leery of our dog and cat where he wasn’t before. Can’t figure that one out. Sorry for the long post but I haven’t been this excited about my son in a long
time. Please tell me it is ok to continue.

Thanks,
Mary

(Brenda)

Mr. Mueller:

I am writing to let you know that we have had good results with the Vision Audio CD. My 6 year old son seems much less hypersensitive to sounds and his general awareness has increased. He still is bothered by some sounds but his tolerance is much better.

We will continue to use the CD for 30 minutes each night when he is sleeping. He will not tolerate headphones during the day. He sleeps very soundly, so the headphones do not bother him. I really appreciate the flexibility the CD allows. We can take it on trips or alter his schedule if necessary. I am recommending it to other parents.

Thank you for the disk. It has been one more component to my son’s recovery.

Brenda

(Tammy)

Dear Mr. Mueller,

I ordered your ease Cd about one month ago for my son Zachary. When I received it I was a little skeptical but willing to give it a try. Before we puchased this CD, getting Zachary to wear headphones was next to impossible but after the first day he easily sat through the sessions and asked to do so. For the first week or so the only difference we noticed was that the music had an extremely calming affect on Zach so we continued the sessions daily, after about 10 days we noticed he seemed to understand what we were saying better, was picking up and using more words making more eye contact. He doesn’t hold his ears when I run the vacuum, mixer or blender anymore he still does when his one year old sister screams (but I feel like doing it then so I can’t blame him). He recently started pre-school and the first day all the kids were screaming and crying for their moms when we went in and I thought Zach would just freak out and hate it, but the screaming didn’t seem to bother him, he went right in and did fantastic. I even have proof that this has helped him, we got Zacharys diagnosis 2 months ago and he had a battery of test run, one of them was receptive language, Zacharys speech therapist started her annual testing last week and gave zach the exact same receptive language test, he has gained 7 months in his receptive language in the past 2 months, we are awaiting the other test results but I am sure they will show similar or better improvements. Now for my reason for writing, Zach loves the CD and we have finished our sessions 20 days 1/2 hour each day, would it hurt him to continue using it, he loves the CD and it still calms him down, he even sleeps better if he listens to it right before bedtime. He also specifically asks for the CD but I didn’t know if using it longer would hurt him or not. Will he show signs of regression if we stop using it? If we are supposed to stop, how long should we wait before trying it again? I also heard that he is not supposed to listen to other music with headphones on because it would decrease the effect of this CD, is this true? I also heard that if he hears certain noises that it could erase the benefits, I hope this is not true, do the benefits seem to last? Thank you for giving us the opportunity to give our son something that we otherwise could not have afforded.

Tammy L.

(Lisa)

Dear Listmates,

We have been using the CD with our son. He is very manic and never stops moving. We did not try to prepare him for wearing the headphones. We just plopped him down one day to give it a try. It was amazing. He sat still for the entire half hour. The CD makes him yawn and usually puts him to sleep. If he is upset during the day and I can’t figure out why, I play the CD over the speakers and this seams to
calm and relax him.

I can’t say that I have seen any improvement in vocalizations from this (he is nonverbal) but just to be able to calm him is a miracle. Thought you all might
be interested. Lisa

Dear Listmates,

I wrote about this once before but the help that this CD has given us is amazing.

My son is very hyper and is often upset and it is hard to help calm him. I can even play this CD over our speakers into the room and his head snaps to the direction of the speakers, his crying stops and he calms down. I should note that he never exhibited any noticable hearing sensitivities.

Bill, are you cutting another CD? Count me in.
Thanks.

Lisa

(Lynette)

Dear Bill,

It’s been way longer than I wanted to wait on this and since I’m probably never going to remember to call during the day I’d like to go ahead and order the second disc. Reagan has continued to make incredible progress,is attending preschool now without her shadow aide and spontaneously interacting with peers,not at age appropriate levels but I believe she’ll get there. I think the EASe disc has contributed to this improvement.
Thank you!
Lynette

(Jill)

Dear Bill,

First of all, thank you for overnighting the CD to us in time for our vacation. We have been using the CD on our 3 1/2 year old son with autism and hypersensitive hearing for 19 days. I guess I should say 19 nights
since we place the headphones on him after he has gone to sleep.

And we have seen differences. He used to hold his fists to his ears at certain noises and that has all but disappeared now. The vacuum cleaner still gets him but that is very loud, indeed.

And we have all noticed a fairly dramatic increase in his language skills. He is clearly not at a normal level for this age but since using the disc, he has begun singing songs he has heard on tapes, asking for more things and generally is able to communicate better.

Thank you very much for your help. If I can be of any additional help to you regarding my son’s progress, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Jill

(Catrina)

Hi Bill,

You and I talked at length some time ago about your AIT CD. If you recall, I was the person who started the AIT CD thread on this list after I saw a little piece on it in the ADVOCATE magazine.

I haven’t been able to try the CD on my 4 year old with HFA because she’s starting a combination of two drugs and I didn’t want to start several things at once without a clue as to what was causing what
symptom or benefit. You can understand. I hope to start her up after the 4th when school is out.

I will tell you I have lent the CD to my father, who is recovering from metastatic lung cancer. Two years ago, the cancer spread to a single metastasis to the brain. He had further radiation and underwent photon
beam surgery (knifeless approach). He’s also had two brain biopsies since, though thankfully has been declared cancer-free to this point. The symptoms have been terrible though, such a high price to pay for a
recovery of sorts. One thing that really bothers him is an inability to filter out noises. He literally can’t read two rooms away when people are talking or watching TV in the house. He has to wear ear plugs to
relax from a dog barking two houses away. I brought up the CD you produced, and he’s using it twice daily for 30 minutes. After two sessions, my Mom found him asleep in the hammock outside with a dog
barking away. We thought this was pretty interesting. I don’t know what effects it will have for him, but he’s giving it a try. With so little available to him, I think this might give him a small sense of “control” over the situation– that this might be something to fix his noise problem.

I’ll update on both of them as I get information.

Catrina

(Dana)

Hi Bill,

Just wanted to tell you that my son, Austin, started using the Ease disc after his occupational therapist recommended it. He has sensory integration problems. He was really bothered by the noise of vacuums, blenders, food processors, etc. He would cover his ears a lot, and if we took out one of the appliances he would lock himself in a bedroom. His OT said that he was most likely bothered by other noises also, so he would block out everything. You would have to repeatedly call his name to get his attention. After using the ease disc, he now isn’t bothered one bit by these noises. Last week he even helped me push the vacuum. He also started initiating conversations more often. (He was not in his own little world as much.) He is so much easier to communicate with.

We are so pleased with the results. Thank you so much.

Dana

(Mary B.)

Dear Mr. Mueller,

I had emailed you about our disk suddenly not working. You had replied that I could return it for a replacement. I am including a check for $4 for shipping. Thanks for your help with this and thanks for your products. My husband and I credit the therapeutic listening to our son beginning to talk! We are real fans!

Sincerely,

Mary B.

(Minc)

Hiya!

Lacey has been on a constant progessive movement ever since we began Sara’s Diet, so it’s actually pretty tough for me to say what did what, you know? However, there are some major things that I noticed and I do attribute directly to the EASe cd.

When we attended the Option Institute in May their staff noticed that there was some sort of a delay in Lacey’s ability to respond to requests. We guessed that she was experiencing a lag between what her hearing received and the time it took for her brain to process what that sound was. I thinkthere were even times when this appeared to be as long as 30 seconds.

Now the reason I had wanted the EASe was because Lacey had what I called “selective hearing” – she would tune out all other sounds. Funny, now I’ve got a teenaged boy who is beginning to do the same thing .

Another thing that we noticed is that Lacey was speaking, but she was only saying half the words – “cla” for clock, “ti” for tick. So when I got home at the end of May, I got pretty serious about implementing the EASe cd program on a regular basis.

I started playing the EASe cd on speakers attached to the ceiling that were mounted porportionately spaced to Lacey’s crib. I turned it on at naptime and also at bedtime (it would take her at least 30 minutes to fall asleep, so I figured that is a confined area and she would be forced to listen to it . Never did I see it interfer with her ability to nap.)

Pretty soon (I’d say after about 3 weeks), I was able to tell that a vast improvement in her response time had occurred. I have a little song I sing and at this point in time what I would do is to stop in the middle and not
continue until Lacey would touch my lips first. Previously I had not recognized it to be a lag in her auditory processing response time (I thought it was taking her some time to think about whether or not she really wanted to hear more of my singing ).

Once I recognized that was what it was, I was able to measure the improvements. Pretty soon it got to where she would touch my lips as soon as I had quit singing.

By the way, during this little game we play, she is sitting astride on my lap, being held close to my body and she cannot see me singing. This is how I know that the auditory processing response time improved and during this particular time period the only thing that we changed was implementing the EAse.

I was so pleased with the results that I decided to investigate AIT as well and met a therapist who needed some logo design work, so we bartered. This therapist told me that she always has a tough time with 3-year-olds and that usually the mothers force them to the ground and pin back their hands to make them keep the headphones on (don’t know if she was actually exaggerating or not, but I did get the idea that most of the younger kids do not cooperate or sit quietly, so I prepared myself for what I thought would be a traumatic event….)

What I did was take my highchair and the night before we started the AIT sessions, my husband and I built what we call a “fingerboard”. It is a piece of wood that is cut to fit the highchair’s table and it has all sorts
of wild stuff that has been stapled and glued to it. The idea was to get her to feel a lot of different textures to feel and to play with.

We strapped her into the highchair, placed the fingerboard in front of her to play with, and held our breaths after we put the headphones on. Lacey did not fuss or cry or even whimper. She was happily examining the
fingerboard and every once in a while I noticed she would look off to the side as if listening intently.

I think that acclimating her to the type of sounds she would be hearing was beneficial to us (and recently wrote a post to this effect.)

In our case, although the EASe cd seemed to be doing the trick, I’m in a hurry and the AIT was free, so this worked well for me.

It’s a funny thing, actually, but when I first received the disk I remember my bloodpressure sort of rising with each “zzzzttt” that I heard. It was so annoying! After playing the cd for awhile, though, I noticed that I began to lose the ability to distinguish those sounds. Why is that? Did I need auditory therapy as well?

Dr. Robert B. Clayton, a geneticist specializing in autism, diagnosed my husband with auditory dyslexia and claims that one out of every two parents has this problem (in 90% of all cases). Now, when I say he diagnosed this, I mean that he assumed it was Carroll that had the slight tendency towards ADD and the auditory dyslexia, simply because he had spent five minutes speaking to me and had determined that I was experiencing these problems. I do not mean that he ran any sort of tests because he did not. He claims he does not need to – he’s been watching the same couples walk through his door for over 30 years. Interesting, eh?

So my next science project is my husband, although there isn’t anything discernable going on with his hearing. Dr. Clayton says that if auditory dyslexia is not diagnosed in childhood, what basically happens is that as adults they’ve already learned to compensate. Rock and roll was mentioned as having had a theraputic effect …

My plan is to administer the EASe on my husband and see what happens. One thing that I have noticed, since Lacey’s crib is in our bedroom and my husband frequently goes in to lay on the bed to keep her company before she falls asleep … Carroll seems to be enjoying books. I used to claim he hated to read and amazing as this sounds, the only thing that was changed was having played the EASe cd in our bedroom each and everynight for the past four months. Is this possible, Bill?

Thanks, Bill!

Minc

(Chris)

Bill,

This is our 6th day with the EASe disc. My 15 year old son is really enjoying it. He hums and smiles while he’s listening to it. After the first day (when Derek wouldn’t keep the headphones on for more than 5 minutes), we borrowed a better pair of headphones, and Derek now keeps them on for the entire 30 minutes. Yesterday and today I got excellent reports from his 1:1 tutor. Derek seems more aware, he’s conversing (about more than game shows), and actually answering questions (something he hasn’t done in a very long time). His tutor asked him why we needed to know about Clinton and Dole. Derek said, “So we can vote…..(long pause)……the right way.” We’re very excited about this disc, and will be reporting to you again soon.
Thanks for all your help!

Chris

(Dede)

Bill,

We used the EASe CD about 8 weeks ago….Annie, who has severe dyspraxia and many autistic tendencies, loved it…she craved it!!! Her vocabulary doubled…still needs to grow a lot!!! But we are very pleased with the results…even Annie’s speech therapist, who is not crazy about AIT….was VERY impressed…..We had to wean Annie off it slowly, after the 2 weeks, we let her listen to it for a couple 10 min. periods of time. She did rock alot more in her sleep….sometimes right off the bed!!! But this has calmed down…so it really effected her vestibular system…which is a mess! Let me know how your child does!

Dede

My daughter is not autistic either, but has some autistic tendencies. she spent her first 3.5 yrs in a Romanian orphanage and just vegged out…plus she was very abused. Annie has severe language disorder…there are many days that we cannot understand her at all. After doing the EASe Disc for 2 weeks, her vocabulary has doubled. There are some days I do not tend to notice, but her pre-school teachers say it’s WONDERFUL!!! She is now talking to the other children and they DO understand her. Her speech therapist,who is not a fan of AIT….is very impressed. She uses headphones with Annie during therapy and she is doing great. I still use it with her for 10 mins. a day…esp when she is very agitated…it clams her right down…..don’t understand it all….but something has happened!!! And we’re very happy…I need to get the new CD, which is just out.

Dede

(Valerie)

Dear Bill,

We are doing EASE this week. So far all is going well. The only thing that I had to do was use my AudioScion to help adjust the sound levels, because it was too arbitrary with just a CD player. What I did was also quite arbitrary as I just matched the intensity subjectively, since I don’t have a sound level meter. Also I like to reduce the intensity of the left ear half way through the treatment. All in all, it is going well. Blake likes the music. It is a little more sedate than the CD’s I have been using for traditional AIT. I will keep you posted as well as the listmates of the mailing list.

Valerie

Hi Lisa,

Remember me from DAN? How are you doing?

I read your post about the EASE disks. I am also using the disk to see if it gives the same results as AIT, since AIT was banned in Florida. I had a very interesting result: Blake would sit so quitely during the time he listened to the disk that I began to do some work with him that he had previously not been focused enough to do. As a result, with some materials that I had designed, he is now recognizing written words! This calming time allowed me the ability to use the materials I had made to teach him. I decided to continue with the disk every day for a limited period of time and am getting wonderful results.

Keep in touch.

Valerie

(Amy & Mike)

Dear Bill,

Schedule we used the EASe 1: We got the disc as soon as it was available but had difficulty getting Jacob to listen to it with headphones in his home setting. He underwent AIT in a pleasant clinic setting in DEC of 95 but that is different from getting him to comply at home. Plus we have two other little boys that need our attention. We had set the disc aside until we read a posting on the ME list that indicated a family had had success with having their child listen at night after he had gone to sleep. This is what we have been doing for two weeks. For the first 10 days we had him listen for an hour after he was asleep. Now for four days we have reduced it to one half hour. We are continuing with this schedule.

We are doing several interventions with him so it is difficult to determine cause and effect. But he is more affectionate lately–hugging tighter, was kissing his little brother and taking his hand and holding it in the car just yesterday. Also, he is starting to more regularly put together two word phrases–come back, get out, stop it, sit down. He is singing songs more but had just started singing a little prior to EASe. He seems to have a lot of central auditory processing issues but doesn’t really have enough language to be evaluated for this. One of his few stims has been to bang his head into a pillow or bed–I have noticed that this seems to have stopped over the past few days or is at least greatly reduced. It is a behavior I would witness a few times a day and I don’t recall seeing it for a few days.

Please let me know if you have any comments. We are not looking for miracles but feel that every little bit helps. We would like to continue using the disc until 2 becomes available and would like to just charge 2 to our visa. I hope that 8 weeks isn’t too long for him to continue listening to 1. We are using high quality headphones and setting the player to random.

Regards,
Amy N. Mike R.

(Karen)

Hello list…

I just want to send in my endorsement for the Ease CDs. We bought these almost six years ago and saw a great improvement in my son’s hypersensitive hearing very quickly. I am always willing to try something that might help my son, as long as I know it can’t hurt him.

My son no longer demonstrates any sensitivity to sounds. These improvements did not happen until we started playing these CDs at night while he slept or played in his room.

I also want to say a big thank you to Ease CDs for making donations to organizations. Very few product manufacturers are willing to do that and I think that should be acknowledged. It seems like every time we turn around there is another new product claiming results with our kids for a hefty price. It is nice for once to see someone who is willing to give out some of their product so that others can try it first, and to be able to share it with a group when some may not be able to afford it.

I have no financial or other connection to Ease CDs other than they helped my son overcome his hearing sensitivity.

Karen

My name is Bozena S. and I have been using the EASe CD’s in my work after having been trained with Sheila Frick and Ingo Steinbeck in Auditory Intervention Therapy a few years ago. For over 20 years I have been observing and working with brain-injured children. I presently travel to numerous countries around the world lecturing to students at Universities and parents who work with their children.

The EASe CD’s have become and important tool in my work and have proven over and over their value in the healing process in the children I work with. I am forever indebted to Joanne and Bill Mueller to make these CD accessible to public use.

The use of EASe CD’s make very visible changes in the children I work with. Whether the child has a diagnosis of ADD, ADHD, Asperser, Autism, Cerebral Palsy or other developmental delays make no difference. Most of the labels listed above and many others placed on our children carry with them a problem of hyper-sensitivity to sound, hypo-reception to sound or sensory integrative problems. Before I proceed to any other AIT I first apply the EASe CD’s, which have proven over and over again to be the best foundation for starting other AIT therapies. The wide spectrum of coverage that they offer always makes a change in auditory functioning of the child as well as behavior and intellectual function. Below is a list of some of the changes that have been observed by parents and myself:

Reduced hypersensitivity to sound.
Increased sensitivity to sounds child was previously ambivalent to.
Improvement in speech.
Better awareness of the environment around the child.
Changes in sleep cycle.
Improved concentration.
Improved writing.
Imporved behavior.
Better overall performance in school.
Case history: – Igor W. –
diagnosis – “autistic spectrum” –
functional analysis – hypersensitivity to sound with periods of hypo states to sound.

Igor was 3.5 years old when we began the EASe CD’s. He would not react to voice sound. All day long he was preoccupied with making sounds by throwing objects and covering his ears with both hands before the object landed. He had no speech. Igor was evaluated. An individual Neuro-Re-Education Program was designed for him. He did many activities to help his neurological organization. EASe CD’s were introduced a few months later, which made the changes in his function be distinguishable between the other elements of the program and the use or EASe CD’s. Igor began to use sound with a meaning and has since developed it into understandable speech. Speaks in first person and his speech is intelligible to all those who know him. The teachers in school are amazed at the change. Igor can now accompany his mother to supermarkets which was an impossibility in the past as well as other auditory challenging social situations. I strongly suggest that any parent or therapist consider the EASe CD’s as a treatment modality for a child with any developmental problems.

Bozena S.

(Lisa C., Hardwick Elementary School)

Bill,

The following describes work with therapeutic listening for a child in 5th grade diagnosed as having multiple disabilities.

Through consultation with an occupational therapist, a student uses the EASe 2 Modulated CD from Vision Audio. This program is used to enhance and support stimulation to and awareness of the body. The student uses the therapeutic listening program 2x a day, 20-30 minute sessions. This child listens to the CD through headphones allowing him to move about while listening. Since the child has begun this program, there has been improvement with balance, coordination and integration of body within space. The child appears to be more grounded as he attends to daily instruction within the classroom.

Sincerely,

Lisa C.

(Karen)

Hello list…

I just want to send in my endorsement for the Ease CDs. We bought these almost six years ago and saw a great improvement in my son’s hypersensitive hearing very quickly. I am always willing to try something that might help my son, as long as I know it can’t hurt him.

My son no longer demonstrates any sensitivity to sounds. These improvements did not happen until we started playing these CDs at night while he slept or played in his room.

I also want to say a big thank you to Ease CDs for making donations to organizations. Very few product manufacturers are willing to do that and I think that should be acknowledged. It seems like every time we turn around there is another new product claiming results with our kids for a hefty price. It is nice for once to see someone who is willing to give out some of their product so that others can try it first, and to be able to share it with a group when some may not be able to afford it.

I have no financial or other connection to Ease CDs other than they helped my son overcome his hearing sensitivity.

Karen

My son, 3, has some tactile defensiveness and some sensory seeking behavior and only a little auditory defensiveness. A major issue for us was potty training: he just couldn’t seem to feel when he needed to urinate or how to push it out when he had a full bladder. The effort to potty train him has been off and on for 1.5 years now.

We were skeptical of whether therapeutic listening would do anything. Within 3 days of the therapist giving him an EASe CD, which we have so far listened to only 10-30 minutes once a day because he won’t tolerate the earphones for longer than that, we went from every urination in his pants to accident free. My husband and I are astonished. Nothing has changed except starting the EASe CD.

Thank you, thank you, you have no idea what a wonderful thing you have just done for me… suddenly all sorts of preschool options have opened up and his attitude and confidence are so much better… – Diane

“Thank you so much for making the EASe CDs, I’ve been thrilled with the therapeutic
changes I’ve seen in children.”

– Carrie Lippincott, OTR/L

“I bought the EASE CDs about a month ago. I have a 20 year old daughter that I was told many years ago that had hearing problems but also has multiple issues including being Autistic Like. Her behaviors have increased over the last two years so that she seems very nervous, has screaming out burst, Laughing and crying spells, self stims a lot and little to no attention span. This last year it got so bad a trip to the store was almost impossible. Many drugs were tried to help her but she is so sensitive to medicines that we have not had much luck that way.

I just want you to know I started using these CD’s about 3 weeks ago and at that time my daughter would not have anything to do with headphones on her head so I started without them and noticed that she would get closer to the speakers at times so I knew she was listening at least part of time, I also noticed a calming effect over her most the time that the music played. Now, after three weeks she is listening with headphones, less screaming out, less nervous through out the day, a little more attention span. I have also been able to take her to the store to shop for at least a 30 minute span twice with no screaming and her behavior was great.

Today she had a Dr. Appointment and her Dr. said it was the best behaved that she has seen her, so I know her improvements are already being noticed by others. I am so excited to keep this program going with her and to see the difference that may occur.” – Dolly