Very recently we had a client that decided to forego the opportunity to have her son do auditory integration training therapy. She made this decision after finding some articles online that cast doubt on the efficacy of the AIT program. We would like to share our reply with you:
Hello Parent,
Thank you for the links. I glanced over the articles and am disappointed that there are several inaccuracies in them which make AIT sound unproven. In fact there are numerous studies that have proven positive results for the Berard Method of AIT. It is unfortunate that some of the articles, for example the link you gave from ASAT, lump many different auditory programs together and it is true that many of the others have only anecdotal evidence and not formal double blind placebo studies to back up their claims. There is of course always room for more research with any treatment. However, there is a fair amount of decent studies on Berard Method AIT. (I have attached some for your review).
Like many therapies, there are going to be people that dispute the efficacy particularly if they are promoting their own programs as has been the case with the person who overwrites in to Wikipedia (he does and promotes the ABA method and references old information such as the Audiokinetron being banned which is not the case currently). We believe that our 20+ years of experience (as well as Dr. Berard’s 40+ years) with thousands of clients attests to the positive changes in their children’s lives and their success speaks for the legitimacy of the program.
From what we have found, the people that are opponents of AIT are insisting on an NNT of 1. This means that they are demanding a 100% success rate which is simply not reasonable for any therapy, no matter how effective. They are claiming that the studies are flawed because they want to see concrete proof in the form of numbers to prove efficacy, but how do you place a numerical value on, for instance, a child that smiles when passing a loud motorcycle instead of his previous behavior of covering his ears and crying (actual anecdote from a client)? Or the child that doesn’t run out of the room when her mother is washing dishes because the sound of the silverware clanking isn’t an excruciating pain anymore?
While we cannot provide an exact number, we will say with confidence that less than 20% of our clients fail to see at least a minor level of improvement in their child. Likewise, we can attest that we have never had a single situation where the parents reported any long term negative effects. This means that even if a client/child does not gain some improvement from the program, at least no harm is done. AIT is completely safe and non-invasive.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss this further now or in the future.
Regards,
Sarah Gewanter, MSSW, Director
If you would like a copy of the research studies we have compiled, please contact us at info@aithelps.com or call us at 828-683-6900 to give us your mailing address to receive this information.
