Although he is in his 80s, Berard still works in the field. If one or other of these zones is stimulated by certain programmed alternating sounds improvement in the overall functioning of the sensory processing system may result. Audiometric examinations carried out in thousands of cases, before and after AIT, have confirmed these findings, Herwill says. The auditory system reacts by reducing the degree of hyperacute hearing on the troublesome frequencies. The audiometric curve tends to flatten and hearing is normalized, maintaining the former frequency differentiations but eliminating the hyperacute areas.
Sensory input stimulates the formation of new circuits.
Haya Levi, a senior audiologist and director of the speech and hearing center at Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem, is familiar with AIT and has tested children before and after they have undergone it. The medical literature points to benefits, especially for the PDD population and for those suffering from hypersensitivity to sound. The literature is divided on whether learning-disabled population can benefit, and some researchers have concluded that any kind of therapy that includes aud itory training would benefit these children. Each patient has to be evaluated individually. In 1996 Herwill was certified for AIT therapy at Johannesburg's Institution for the Enhancement of Learning Potential.