Music therapy can make a huge difference for children with learning disabilities. These children can achieve joy and security in making music. We can assist them to come to maturity in many ways by implementing therapeutic music. Music contributes to:
- Reading skills
- Feelings and response
- Reasoning ability
- Motor control and physical well- being
- Positive attitude
- Promotion of communication
- Language development
What Are The Therapeutic Characteristics Of Music?
- Captivates your attention easily
- Provides a enjoyable, meaningful context for repetition
- Acts as an excellent memory aid
- Encourages and supports movement
- Stimulates and utilizes different parts of the brain
- Taps into emotions and memories
Music therapy has been used with persons of different age groups (preschool to late adulthood). Also it has been used to treat many types of disabilities whether adventitious or congenital.It can be used to motivate structure exercises or movements because music is reinforcing in nature. It can also provide distraction from the anxiety associated with speech disorders.
Techniques Of Music Therapy
Music therapy techniques have been used to-
- Increase muscle strength
- Develop muscle and joint function
- Improve respiratory and cardiopulmonary functioning
- Facilitate controlled and relaxed movement
- Improve and maintain oral-motor skills
Singing may help in the improvement and maintenance of the pulmonary functioning and oral-motor skills. It also helps in improving rate of speech, breath-control, pronunciation and articulation skills. It also enhances feelings of self-worth, self- esteem and self-independence.
Through manipulating rhythm and tempo, speech clarity can be enhanced. The rate of the speech can be rectified to provide increased communication skills. In the treatment of aphasia, rhythmic training has shown effective and positive results. Music therapy also aids in spontaneous speech in challenged children.
