A.-P.-P. Inter-Centres Bulletin No. 7 (April 1977)

Bulletin of the International Association of Audio-Psycho-Phonology (A.I.A.P.P.), No. 7, April 1977. The cover bears the printed heading “Association Internationale d’Audio-Psycho-Phonologie” and the title “Bulletin A.-P.-P. Inter Centres” (referred to in the text by the acronym B.I.C.); it serves as a link between the centres practising the method. The sections also mention the activity of the French association (A.F.A.P.P.).

This issue opens with a major technical update of the A.P.P. sound tapes, unchanged since January 1975: a redesigned presentation distinguishing by page colour the “music and singing,” “children and adolescents,” and “adults” tapes, and a detailed explanation of the coding system (voice characteristics, tape content, level of integration, serial number). A “Technical problems” section reviews the recording and playback equipment (full-track Revox tape recorders, a planned recorder-player coupled to the Electronic Ear, two-branch headsets and headsets for children developed with the LEM works). The bulletin then presents the new Listening Test charts developed at users’ request, with a space reserved for the practitioner’s observations during administration. This is followed by the report on the 3rd A.F.A.P.P. seminar, held in Lyon on 19 and 20 February 1977 (presentations on electronics and on the ideal listening curve). A section, “The press and A.P.P.,” reproduces an article from the Tribune de Genève on the educational application of the Electronic Ear in Geneva and Lyon.

The second part of the issue inaugurates a series of studies devoted to “Autism and A.P.P.,” intended to situate the A.P.P. techniques among the therapeutic approaches to infantile autism. It draws in particular on the work of Professors Rendle-Short and Rolando O. Benenzon, from which are taken a semeiological description of the observed behaviours and a theoretical model of the “Self” of the autistic and schizophrenic child (illustrated with diagrams). The bulletin invites practitioners to share their clinical observations for the forthcoming issues. The clinical examples cited are given in general terms, with no nominal data.

Historical context — In 1977, Alfred Tomatis’s audio-psycho-phonology method was disseminated by an international network of centres federated within the A.I.A.P.P. and relayed in France by the A.F.A.P.P. This bulletin illustrates the work of standardising the method’s tools (sound tapes, coding, Listening Test, equipment) and the effort to situate the Electronic Ear in relation to the therapies for infantile autism then under discussion in hospital circles.