Parents’ perspectives of using a therapeutic listening program with their children with sensory processing difficulties: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

This phenomenological study explored parents’ perspectives of Therapeutic Listening (TL) implemented as a home program to treat their children with sensory processing difficulties. Ten parents participated in semistructured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Parents were concerned about their child’s anxiety and distress, which they commonly perceived to be reduced with TL. Parents perceived that TL brought a sense of calm to their child, which they linked to improvements in their family life and child’s participation in social and daily activities. Parent engagement (problem solving) enabled successful implementation of the program. Findings are discussed in relation to existing literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Auditory intervention
• children
• home program
• parents
• sensory processing
• sensory processing disorder
• sound based intervention
• therapeutic listening

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the parents who participated in this study. We also wish to thank Anna Richardson, the treating therapist who helped with recruiting participants for the study, and Amy Miliken-Stubbings for involvement with the data analysis.