Does Music Therapy Really Help Children With Special Needs?

Music has been able to entertain the population for as long as it has been around. It is present in restaurants, clubs, and similar environments so that people can be entertained while enjoying time out with family and friends. Although music has a reputation of being a tool of entertainment, it also has the ability to benefit the health and mental state of the listener. Many studies have been conducted to shed light on the positive effects of music therapy and show that music is able to provide an even greater effect than the ordinary treatments alone.President of the Association for Music Therapy states that,“Active music engagement allowed the patients to reconnect with the healthy

Following the developing of social sciences, everybody has started to get concerned about the issue if music is good for healthy body and mental recently. This phenomenon makes the music therapy becomes popular. Music therapy is defined as “ the therapeutic use of music as to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, promote physical rehabilitation, or enhance interpersonal communication that typically involves listening to music, singing, playing musical instruments, or composing music “ in the Merriam-Webster.com. In other words, through the activity of music people can improve physical or psychological disease that achieves cure and health.

I knew about music therapy before my paper because I was actually going to major in it for college. It is interesting because I honestly knew so little on how and what music therapists really do in their sessions. One thing I learned and found extremely interesting was how music therapy can help children with autism identify emotions. Music therapy can help individuals identify the correct emotions and expressions of themselves and others around them. An example is if the music therapist plays a sad song, the child will internally feel a little sad inside, they can sing words or say expressions that relate to sadness, and then they can look in the mirror and see their own sad face while also looking at the music therapists sad face (Music Therapy Center of California, 2005, p. 4). I thought it was so interesting to know that music can help children understand emotions. Music therapy can help to lessen negative self-stimulation and it can increase participation and social skills among peers in more acceptable ways (American Music Therapy Association, 2012, p.1). Another big thing I learned from my research is how much music therapy can help a child with autism’s language skills. Music therapy can help children who do not have verbal language express themselves and communicate. The music can also let them participate freely. The connection between the actual music and the interaction of play, such as listening, taking turns and responding helps them with their communication skills (American Music Therapy Association, 2012, p.1). Some personal experiences that I can account for is when I volunteered for a musical theater production called Razzle Dazzle. This was a music production with adults with disabilities. Their disabilities ranged from Down syndrome, to autism, to simply just an intellectual disability. One man by the name of UNKNOWN, was a dancer in our show.

A recent study of music therapy interventions was conducted on 1,891 participants. The study was offered by music therapists and medical staff.

There are many different ways that we benefit from music. Music can inspire better self-esteem, and confidence. It’s a great way to set the mood, and a wonderful tool. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program (Gram, 2005). Music therapy can reach out to anyone, age, race, gender it doesn’t matter. Children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs can benefit from music therapy. As well as, those who have developmental and learning disabilities, those who suffer from Alzheimer's

Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by an accredited professional who as completed an approved music therapy program. “Music therapists hope that scientific research continues to define how their work differs from entertainment, and how it benefits patients as much as other more familiar complementary therapies such as art therapy.” (Mellskog) This shows how even though there is little research and evidence on music therapy, it is still very effective and a

According to Geretsegger et al. (2014), music therapy is an effective clinical intervention for a varied of medical conditions, which are profoundly supported by strong scientific evidence on their significance for mood enhancement and stress relief. The five conditions for which music therapy has been studied, backed up by good scientific evidence are; dementia, autism, sleep quality, depression and infant development.

There are several therapies that have been developed throughout the years to help children with the disorder. The Applied behavioral analysis (ABA); the educational therapy, which focus on educational and cognitive skills; the medical and related interventions, and the Allied health therapy, that focus on language development, it includes: “speech/language, occupational, and physical therapists, including auditory and sensory integration, music therapy, and language therapies (e.g., Picture Exchange Communication System [PECS])” (Agency for Healthcare research and quality, 2014). However, the main idea of this research paper is to focus on the music therapy approach, which can serve as an important tool to develop basic verbal and nonverbal communication in

Music Therapists (MTs) borrow from a range of non-music based therapy models in their development of Music Therapy-specific treatment models. Many widely used Music Therapy (MT) techniques have their roots in psychological theories and treatment models. Cognitive Behavioural Music Therapy (CBMT) draws on the widely-used and extensively researched psychology approach, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), to address CBT goals through MT interventions. Despite the many parralels between CBT and MT there is limited literature on CBMT; the existing literature indicates that CBMT may be an effective treatment for clients with a variety of needs. Improvisation in CBMT makes up an even smaller portion of the literature, however the theoretical underpinnings of the CBT approach are congruent with the use of music improvisation.

Jodi Picoult, New York Times best-selling author of Sing You Home once said, "Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It’s not about entertainment as much as it 's about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else’s mind, you can begin to fix a problem." Music therapy is precisely that: an assuaging therapy meant to heal patients who need empathy, love, and tranquility. Patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), residents of nursing homes, or non-verbal people on the autism spectrum all can use music therapy to their advantage. Music therapy is truly beautiful to many patients, who are not the only people benefitting from this type of therapy. Therapists and family members are wholly affected by music therapy as they watch their patients or loved ones develop through the love of music. Although music therapy is not for all patients, it has wonderful perquisites for many disorders and injuries.

In light of this, music treatment can and regularly is utilized as a part of a wide assortment of utilizations. One basic application for music treatment is in working with mentally unbalanced people since research has found that music can help extremely introverted kids to convey what needs be. Moreover, music treatment has been found to help people with physical handicaps to grow better engine

Music therapy is the prescribed use of music and related strategies, by a qualified therapist, to assist or motivate a person towards specific, non-musical goals. This process is used in order to restore, maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well being. At the heart

    “Music, even in situations of the greatest of horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” (Mozart). Music is pervasive in everyday life. It is used as a means of communication. It allows us to better oneself, and continues to be an outlet for creativity that is ever changing in this era. The use of music in a therapy session dates back to ancient times and has even been discovered in ancient biblical scriptures. “The National Association for Music Therapy (N.A.M.T) was established on June 2, 1950 in New York and has been the basis for Musical Therapy since and continues to allow the growth and progression of therapy” (History of Music Therapy). From the article; How Does Music Therapy Work; “At its core, music therapy is the interaction between a therapist, a client (or clients) and the use of music. “A music therapist assesses the client(s) and creates a clinical plan for treatment in conjunction with team and client goals, which in turn determines the course of clinical sessions. A music therapist works within a client-centered, goal-directed framework”(How Does Music Therapy Work?). While music in general is a great thing, there is an unlimited range for possibilities for use in therapeutic practice. Musical therapy is critical because of the mental, physical and social benefits it provides.

According to the American Music Therapy Association (A.M.T.A.), music therapy is “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” As a generally new and upcoming industry, music therapy is often underestimated. By incorporating different areas of the brain, music can reduce stress, ease

Music therapy, a clinical use of music interventions to accomplish therapeutic goals, involves a broad range of activities including playing an instrument, singing, or listening to music. Similar to occupational and physical therapy, this expressive arts therapy remedies psychological conditions, such as depression, anxiety, or hypertension to maintain the well-being of an individual. Likewise, music has been a therapeutic tool that has shown positive effects to parts of the brain including regions involved in emotion, sensation, movement, and cognition. Although music therapy is a somewhat new-found treatment, it is used prominently today. Administered by a trained therapist, this type of therapy is used in correctional facilities, nursing homes, hospices, and special education schools.