School's Experimental Therapies Help Some Kids Focus

In 2004, 60 percent of the kindergartners at Gordon Parks Elementary in Kansas City, Missouri, failed a visual-skills test. The results prompted teachers to try something new. They began regular lessons in visual skills using therapist Cheryl Steffenella.

"Parks retrains many students' listening abilities as well, through lessons pioneered by French physician Alfred Thomatis. The sessions use students' voices and modified recordings of Mozart, played through headphones, to retrain the brain."

The American Academy of Pediatrics hasn't approved the new techniques, saying that the results are not consistent. But the students at Park Elementary say they've learned better how to focus, and how to listen. Source: USA Today.

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Labels: listening, therapy, visual_skills