Johansen IAS

Johansen Individualised Auditory Stimulation (JIAS) is a listening programme developed in Denmark by Dr Kjeld Johansen, a teacher and psychologist who spent his career studying the link between how children hear and how they learn.

Hearing is not the same as listening. A child can pass a hearing test and still find it hard to pick a voice out of classroom noise, hold on to a set of instructions, tell similar sounds apart or turn what they hear into what they read and write. JIAS works on that processing step.

I am a certified JIAS provider, and it is the auditory programme I use alongside my movement work.

JIAS is suitable from around age three and is used with children and adults who experience:

• Auditory processing difficulties
• Dyslexia and slow progress with reading and spelling
• Speech and language delay
• Difficulty concentrating or following spoken instructions
• Dyspraxia and coordination difficulties
• Sensitivity to noise, or being on the autism spectrum

Families typically report better listening and attention first, followed by gains in reading, spelling, confidence and, often, calmer behaviour.