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Essay On Music And Autism

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Music has always been used as a way to get relaxed and enjoy this specific type of art. Varying from many selections of different types of music, many artists today use music to express what they are feeling about their views in the world they live in, or even to just express their emotion (Juslin & Sloboda, 2001). There are many mysteries in the world of music, ranging from easy questions “What is the meaning behind these lyrics?” To more complex questions, “What chemicals will the brain release to this melody?” With modern technology, research has been done to answer these questions to the point where music is now being used as a form of therapy. But can this enjoyable activity treat mental illnesses? To begin the research, there has to be an understanding about what music and therapy are. Music; according to the Oxford Dictionary, is ‘vocal and/or instrumental sounds that combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.’ There are many hypothesis out there that try to answer the question, “What is music?” One hypothesis states that music has one primary effect, and that is to induce an altered state of mind. In other words music is often used to disconnect us beings from …show more content…

First off, autism is a disorder associated with many developmental problems, especially when they communicate or when they’re trying to be social. Music is being used to help people with autism, because autistic people more than often how a strong interest to music (Whipple, 2004). This helps to teach them to have more social skills like verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and to have a more normal developmental processes. Study done by Kim, Wigram, & Gold (2009) showed that there were more positive responses for music therapy, than there wa for toy play sessions for children. This came to the conclusion that music therapy promotes a more social, motivational, and emotional development in children that had

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