The Sound of Learning: How Listening and Frequency Support Emotional Regulation

Joy Davis, Director of Special Education, Twin Rivers Unified School District

Joy Davis, Director of Special Education, Twin Rivers Unified School District

Through this article, Davis highlights the need to redefine listening as an active process essential for learning and emotional regulation. She advocates for using frequency-rich sound environments to stimulate brain development, emphasizing sound’s role in enhancing language, attention and connection.

In today’s complex educational landscape, the call to support students holistically has never been louder. While social-emotional learning (SEL) has begun to gain traction as a support for learning in many classrooms, a quieter—but equally powerful—dimension of development often goes overlooked—sound. Not just spoken language, but the full spectrum of frequency, rhythm and vibration that shapes how we regulate emotions, connect with others and communicate. At the heart of this understanding lies the pioneering work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis, who asserted that “the voice does not produce what the ear does not hear.” Listening, he claimed, is the foundation of learning, speaking and feeling.

Listening—at its most fundamental level—supports neurological and emotional development happens beneath conscious awareness. While active listening is a valuable skill taught in classrooms and counseling settings, the kind of listening that Alfred Tomatis emphasized the importance of exposing the ear to novel, frequency-rich sound environments to stimulate the brain and “charge the cortex.” This type of auditory input doesn’t require active attention or comprehension—it simply needs to be received. The ear, when consistently exposed to dynamic and stimulating frequencies, especially in the higher registers, can influence the vestibular system, posture, attention and even vocal expression. Sound becomes a gentle but powerful means of engaging the brain’s capacity to reorganize itself.

Even simple interventions—like filtered classical music, gentle wind chimes, a singing bowl or a tonal bell—can be embedded into classroom routines to cue transitions, signal focus time or promote emotional settling. These kinds of auditory rituals require minimal training but can condition students toward calm and consistency. In this way, sound becomes not just background, but a developmental tool— easy to integrate, neurologically potent and deeply human. This link is especially crucial given the growing number of non-verbal or minimally verbal children in school settings. While the reasons are varied and complex—ranging from autism spectrum disorders to increased screen time and environmental factors—there is a shared thread: difficulty integrating sound in ways that support speech and selfregulation. Tomatis’s insight that auditory processing precedes vocal expression offers a hopeful path forward. By creating environments rich in purposeful, structured sound—filtered music, therapeutic listening programs and voice-driven interactions—we may help these students activate neural pathways necessary for speech. The goal is not simply to make them talk, but to help them connect, regulate and express themselves through the foundational act of listening.

“By creating environments rich in purposeful, structured sound, filtered music, therapeutic listening programs and voicedriven interactions, we may help these students activate neural pathways necessary for speech”

Sound-based tools and frequency interventions are already gaining ground in therapeutic and educational spaces. Programs using bone conduction headsets and filtered classical music, such as Mozart or Gregorian chant, are designed to gently stimulate the vestibular and auditory systems. These tools operate on the premise that specific sound frequencies can calm the nervous system, improve attention and foster greater emotional balance. The low frequencies ground us, mid frequencies bring clarity and high frequencies—those emphasized in Tomatis’s work—activate the cortex and support language development. When integrated intentionally into daily routines, these tools do more than soothe—they open doorways to connection and cognition.

Educators can begin applying these principles without sophisticated equipment. A teacher’s voice—its tone, rhythm and warmth—becomes a critical medium for emotional attunement. Simple practices such as mindful listening exercises, structured music breaks or quiet transition rituals can prime students’ brains for learning. Music isn’t just a nice add-on—it is a neural stimulant, emotional regulator and language builder. Early childhood classrooms that begin the day with a song or secondary settings that incorporate background instrumental music during writing, are already tapping into this power.

The implications for early intervention are profound. Auditory screening and sound-focused supports should be prioritized, particularly for children with language delays, sensory processing challenges or emotional dysregulation. If we can engage the auditory system early, we may unlock gains in self-regulation, verbal expression and relational connection that are otherwise harder to reach through traditional behavioral or academic interventions alone.

We must strive to continuosly broaden our understanding of how the brain listens—and how that listening shapes a child’s capacity to learn, speak and thrive. In a time when many children are overwhelmed by noise but undernourished by meaningful sound, creating intentional listening environments is both a pedagogical and a developmental imperative.

The path to learning, connection and self-expression begins not with speaking, but with listening. And when we tune in to the role of sound, we discover a powerful key to helping every child—verbal or not—find their voice.