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maximum stress. He pushed back in the chair, clamped his mouth
closed, pushed his mother's hand and the spoon away, and cried.
He was able to cope with the situation by focusing his attention
hypnotically on a child's music videotape to cut out interaction
and other sensory input.
After an initial thirty-minute session with a relaxed-focus
METAMUSIC tape, he accepted touch to his hands and chest,
initiated eye contact and smiling, and appeared to be calm and
peaceful. METAMUSIC tapes were incorporated into a sensory-
based treatment program for the next week. He was seen for five
hours of intervention per day, with METAMUSIC used approxi-
mately 50% of the time. He continued to show increased inter-
action and eye contact, began to explore toys, imitated his body
movements and facial expression in a mirror, and was able to
regulate his response to sensory input more efficiently. Gagging
and vomiting ceased. During mealtimes he was more open to
changes in his physical position in the chair and presentation of
the food. Although he still needed his videotape at mealtimes, he
was more interactive with his mother and began to come forward
to initiate a bite from the spoon when a METAMUSIC tape was
played thirty minutes prior to the meal. He no longer cried and
pushed the food away.
During the next six months of home-programming, his parents
felt that he was less alert and tended to become sleepy when a
telaxed-focus METAMUSIC tape was played. When a concen-
tration METAMUSIC tape was substituted, he was more focused,
and no longer became sleepy. Within ten months, he was taking a
wide variety of foods, and had progressed to chewing mashed and
chopped textured foods. :
Case Study: A Child with Cerebral Palsy
A three-year-old boy with cerebral palsy received most of his
meals through a gastrostomy feeding tube because of severe dis-
organization of swallowing and breathing. He had recently shown
an interest in eating, and his parents gave him small oral feedings
each day. During these meals, his breathing was noisy and labored,
and he showed frequent choking and coughing. He had great
difficulty moving his body volitionally because of high muscle tone
and strong tonic reflex movement patterns. He frequently arched
into hyperextension of his body and head. He drooled profusely.
The base of his tongue was pulled back into a slightly retracted
pattern, intermittently occluding the airway. This pattern con-
tributed to his difficulty with breathing coordination during eating
and drinking. Although it was possible to use gentle manual
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HEMLSYNC® JOURNAL
traction under the chin to draw the base of the tongue forward, he
consistently resisted this treatment strategy. His sleeping patterns
were stressed. As he fell asleep, his body went into strong spasms
that were accompanied by tongue retraction and severe obstruction
of the airway. These episodes of obstructive sleep apnea were
terrifying because of their sudden onset and his inability to
breathe. His panic and increased tension resulted in stronger
reflexive retraction of the tongue and long periods of apnea. He
resisted going to sleep, and it often took three to four hours for
him to calm down and sleep. When a sleep medication (such as
chloral hydrate) was given, he was groggy and unalert the following
morning. His parents preferred to help him learn to go to sleep
while they were up. They gave lesser amounts of the medication in
the late evening when they went to bed. Without this medication,
the sleep-wake-apnea episodes continued throughout the night,
and the whole family experienced sleep deprivation.
A telaxed-focus METAMUSIC tape was used initially during
quiet, on-thelap activities such as listening to a story. This enabled
the therapist to feel any changes in muscle tone and movement
coordination that were related to HemiSync. During these
sessions, his postural tone reduced, and he could interact with a
storybook as his hand was guided to different pictures. He
accepted the therapist's hand under his chin to facilitate a more
forward position of the tongue. He was interested in the contrast
between his noisy and quiet breathing patterns, and began to
maintain the quiet pattern independently for longer periods.
Oral feeding sessions were held with the child supported on his
mother's lap. Physical assistance was given to keep the tongue out
of the pharyngeal airway. Sucking and swallowing movements
became more regular and rhythmical, and were well coordinated
with breathing. There was no coughing or choking. A modified
barium swallow study several months later showed an efficient
swallow with no aspiration. A relaxed- focus METAMUSIC tape
was used at each meal, and intermittently throughout the day. The
child learned to use a more forward head position and keep the
base of the tongue out of the airway. At the end of the five-day
intensive treatment program, he used a quiet breathing pattern
more than 75% of the time, and was spontaneously swallowing his
saliva. Drooling was minimal.
Evening therapy sessions were held at bedtime. A META.
MUSIC sleep tape was introduced to help him relax and fall asleep
with less physical and emotional stress. The therapist used the
Positive suggestions that he could sleep peacefully and breathe
quietly. Intervention to inhibit his tonic reflex patterns and keep
the tongue in a more forward position was used at the first sign of
the spasm. Over a four-day period he was able to fall asleep within
a thirty-minute period. He had one or two small spasms during the
initial sleep period, but was free from apnea episodes. An adult
temained with him for physical and emotional support during this
period, repeating the positive suggestions for easy sleep, and
helping him maintain a forward tongue position. Three weeks after
the program began, his parents weaned him from the sleep
medication, and he slept through the night.
Summary
METAMUSIC tapes containing the binaural beat patterns of
Hemi-Sync open the door to learning for many children with
developmental disabilities. Children with oral feeding difficulties
have increased their skills and comfort level more efficiently when
METAMUSIC was included in the learning environment. The
sound technology is inexpensive, nonnvasive, and effective.
METAMUSIC makes an important contribution to most
rehabilitation programs.
References
Budzynski, T. 1981. Brain lateralization and rescripting. Somatics,
Spring, 3.9.
Bullard, B. 1997. Personal communication.
Bullard, B. 1995. The road to Remembrance. HemiSync Journal, 13 (1).
Guilfoyle, G. and D. Carbone. 1997. The facilitation of attention
utilizing therapeutic sounds. Hemi-Sync Journal, 15 (2).
Morris, S. E. 1991. The facilitation of learning. Chap. 9 in
Neurodevelopmental strategies for managing communication disorders in
children with severe motor dysfunction, edited by M. Beth Langley and
Linda J. Lombardino. Austin, Tex. ProEd, 251-96.
Morris, S. E. 1990. Hemi-Sync and the facilitation of sensory
integration. HemiSync Journal, 8 (4).
Morris, S. E. 1985a. Music and Hemi-Sync in the treatment of
children with developmental disabilities. Breakehrough, December.
Morris, S. E. 1985b. Developmental implications for the
management of feeding problems in neurologically impaired
infants. Seminars in Speech and Language, 6 (4): 293-315.
Sornson, R. 1996. Personal communication.
Varney, K. 1988. Metamusic with Hemi-Sync as an adjunct to
intervention with developmentally delayed young children.
Master's thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Editor: Shirley Bley |
Layout & Design: Jackie Umbarger
The HEMI-SYNC JOURNAL, a publication of The Monroe
Institute, an educational and research organization dedicated to exploring
and developing the uses and understanding of human consciousness,
‘offers current reporting on research and application of the Hemi-Syno®
technology in a variety of protessional fields.
‘The HEMI-SYNC JOURNAL is published four times annually
by The Monroe institute, 62 Roberts Mountain Road, Faber, VA 22938-
9749. Telephone: (804) 361-1252, Membership rates from $50 to $150
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© 1998 The Monroe institute. All rights reserved. No part may be
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