Music Therapy: A Whole New Meaning
When talking to someone with absolutely no musical background, it’s quite common to come across the hesitant question of what exactly is music therapy. Most people are biased to having a general idea of what professions such as doctors, teachers and bankers do, mostly because they encounter these in everyday life. However, music therapy is a relatively fresh and rising profession to the medical and musical world, so much so that few have actually come into contact with its great power to heal. Although it is underestimated by many physicians and society in general, music therapy is in fact an extremely sufficient and programmed service for the community, helping different client populations physically, socially, mentally, and emotionally. The effectiveness of music as a therapeutic tool has steadily become an increased call of aid to various client populations over the past century.
Music therapy is the use of music in the accomplishment of restoration, maintenance, and improvement of mental and physical health. It is the application of music, with involvement of the physical environment to bring desirable changes of behavior. Just as physicians use a variety of procedures and equipment to aid a patient with their personal medical condition, music therapists associate their musical talents to please their individual or group clientele. Hence, music therapists use music and musical activities to facilitate therapeutic processes. Generally, music therapists work with all ages that are developmentally disabled, physically disabled, and sensory impaired, neurologically impaired, autistic, substance abusers, school and early childhood disorders. Today, music therapists are employed in a variety of health care and educational settings including hospitals, clinics, and different centers for disabilities, elderly homes, prisons, and schools. Several also work within inpatient psychiatric facilities and in universities as music therapy professors.
Generally speaking, music therapists use the guitar, percussion instruments, and the keyboard or piano as the main sources of musical instrumentation. Having to now all genres of music, the job of a music therapist is to play what the client prefers to hear, which in conclusion, will hopefully open up the client to speak of his or her concerns and problems. Music can also be used as a speech stimulator or stimulator for bodily movement, such as an aid for physical therapy. Commonly, music therapy is used with children suffering with different disabilities, such as autism. Music is a worldwide tool for the association of people and one of the top methods for bringing people together.
As a future music therapist, working with children suffering from autism, as well as other disabilities is a great privilege. Autism is a severe and incapacitating development disorder that affects about four in every ten thousand children. Most children with autism remain severely disabled and require extreme care throughout their entire life. Children diagnosed with autism are normal in physical appearance, but demonstrate severely disturbed patterns including social aloneness, lack of emotional responsiveness, avoidance of eye contact, failure to respond to visual and auditory stimulations, excessive attachment to objects, and repetitive or obsessive behaviors. As a therapist, the focal goals to correct these patterns are to emphasize social behavioral skills, sensorimotor development, cognitive development, and language development. Nevertheless, the learning process of children with autism can be delayed due to their lack of concentration and the preoccupation of different behaviors. Therefore, it is up to the therapist to emphasize eye contact, frequent calling of attention, and the constant encouragement of goals during sessions.
As far as music is concerned, it has been researched and found that in fact, many autistic children perform unusually well in music areas in comparison with most other areas of their behavior, as well as in comparison with many normal children. Children tend to respond to musical instruments as a form of group interaction. In addition, children with autism respond more frequently and appropriately to music than to other auditory stimuli. For music therapists, the goals made for children with autism would include improving motor coordination, increasing children’s attention span, developing body awareness, social skills, verbal and nonverbal communication, reducing anxiety and hyperactivity, and altering repetitive behavioral patterns. In order to complete these tasks, music therapist do a number of things, For example, they incorporate vocalization exercises, such as singing and chanting, which is often accompanied with body percussion. Music therapists also incorporate dancing and movement, rhythmic exercises, and creative movement to get the children involved in group projects.
To improve the language skills of children with autism, music therapists often make children write their own songs using new words that they have learned. Focusing on vowel and consonant pronunciation as well as accents on syllables, children practice saying words until they are comfortable with the sounds. To strengthen the functional use of lips, tongue, jaws, and teeth, music therapists often give the children wind instruments to play, which is a form of oral motor-imitation exercises. Because many children with autism are attracted to music, a musical setting may motivate attention span and perception, as well as enhance memorization of information that is learned during therapy sessions.
The common goals to physically improve children with autism or any disability for that matter include strengthening the muscles, increasing range of motion, exercising coordination and balance, training functional motor activities, enforcing proper muscular positioning, and mobility training. Music therapists often use soothing music with low volume to help muscle relaxation with conditions of muscle stiffness. Rhythmic stimuli may be used as efficient pacemakers to structure correct timing and coordination, anticipation, and rhythm in movement. Music therapists use instrumental music or songs to pace arm and hand training and other joint movements through reach and grasping exercises. Music and sound are used successfully to provide auditory feedback during movement training. A common technique used in music therapy sessions with children experiencing disabilities is TIMP, or therapeutic instrumental music playing, in which children play music instruments for exercising muscles and improving fine motor skills. By playing musical instruments, it can help improve range of motion, strengthen muscles, increase respiratory functions, and exercise coordination of limbs and manual dexterity.
In essence, music therapy has become one of the most highly requested sources of treatment for those with disabilities, and for general treatment throughout the entire country. The effectiveness of music in the medical setting has greatly increased over the past fifty years, with the revolution of newer and greater technology and instrumentation. In addition, several institutions are adding music therapy as a degree-seeking program, as there is a great need for music therapists in the United States, as well as other countries in the world. Using music instruments and therapeutic techniques, music therapists are advancing the healing process of clients of all ranges physically, mentally, and emotionally. Now with the sound of music, millions of people everyday are reaching a curing point beyond the works of medicine.
Bibliography
American Music Therapy Association. Frequently asked questions about music therapy. http://www.musictherapy.org/faqs.html
The National Autistic Society. Music Therapy. The National Autistic Society 2007. http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=528&a=3348
Autism Research Institute. Center for the Study of Autism. http://www.autism.org/music.html
