Therapeutic interventions that employ listening have been used to treat children and adults with a variety of diagnoses since the middle of the last century. The theoretical foundations for listening therapy have been developed by such great thinkers as Alfred Tomatis, Guy Berard, and Jean Ayres, and there is much anecdotal support documenting the effectiveness of auditory training to address a wide range of impairments. The empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of listening therapy, however, has not been very strong. The majority of studies annotated in this review have looked at the effectiveness of auditory training in the treatment of children with autism. Although many children with a diagnosis of autism also carry a diagnosis of sensory processing disorder, it is not possible to make conclusions about the effectiveness of listening therapy on SPD based solely on the autism work. A small study published in the last year shows that listening therapy may be a promising intervention option for children with SPD.
