A growing child’s brain is always building links – between sounds and images, emotions and experiences, tastes and smells.  An infant’s mental development is a matter of linking new information, feelings, and sensations to old.  Just like building an elegant palace brick by brick, each new part is built on a foundation of material that has already been put in place.  This building and linking of words, sounds, and experiences continues throughout our lives. Children are said to have a certain number of words stored... ...Read more

For four of our five senses, we have a variety of ways to “turn them off” – closing our eyes to block too much light, covering our noses to block an unpleasant smell, avoiding foods we don’t like the taste of, and selecting clothes that don’t make us itchy.  But for our ears, turning-off sounds is not as easy.  There are always shifting overlaps of conversations, music and natural sounds that we encounter throughout the day.  For adults, the constant simulation of sounds can be... ...Read more