Last night I went to hear a very moving talk by a young mother about her miraculously developing, severely disabled child, now about 7 years old, after having been given up on as beyond hope. The audience was primarily psychologists and psychiatrists. During the Q and A session following her presentation I brought up the issue of bonding via listening to sounds generated by one's own voice and through one's own facial engagement.
Immediately she sprang to how much the child loves music: dances, claps, sings along with the sung nursery rhymes.
But that is not what I mean. I am talking about a different kind of listening. Listening for, not listening to. It is altogether different. It involves activation of a part of our brains that is in increasing danger of atrophy.
