Music Therapy for Children With Developmental Disabilities

Music therapy is the clinical use of music to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship. Music therapy helps children with developmental disabilities improve cognitive skills, physical ability, social skills, communication, and emotional stability. By this principle, music therapy may be a powerful tool in establishing or maintaining a developmentally disabled child's good health.

Cognitive Benefits

• A music therapist can use music to stimulate developmentally disabled children and help them focus their attention. Changes such as crescendo and decrescendo may teach these patients to recognize interactions and incoming information. Such awareness and cognitive recognition can then be applied in life situations outside of music therapy sessions with practice.

  Music therapy helps developmentally disabled children learn through repetition. Music can make repetition easier and more enjoyable for young patients with developmental disabilities. Depending on the condition and temperament of the music therapy patient, enjoyment may be paramount to the repetition learning process.

  Music can quell anxiety. Music therapy may be a good option for your child's care if you recognize anxiety and related social disorders. Have your child's music therapist determine and apply music that provides a calming effect on your child.

Physical Benefits

• Music therapy uses rhythm to stimulate and organize muscle response. This can be of great benefit to children suffering from neuromuscular disorders resulting from their developmental disabilities. Physical response-based music therapy can motivate a patient to complete or attempt physical movements that require more effort than is normally exerted.

Social Skills and Communication Benefits

• Some aspects of music therapy, such as performance, encourage cooperation. Collaborating on a song or dance can improve a developmentally disabled child's social skills. This is an additional benefit to participating children being motivated by their own importance to the completion of a musical project.

  Children with developmental disabilities benefit from maintaining relationships and familiarity with the clinicians who provide musical instruction.

  Improved speech and nonverbal communication are important to children with some developmental disabilities. Rhythm stimulates motor function. When applied in music therapy, rhythm association can help condition children to speed up or slow down their speech as necessary.

Emotional Benefits

• Music as an emotional outlet can be helpful to children with developmental disabilities. Music therapy may be just the arena for expression your child needs to control emotional outbursts and extremes. Music listened to and performed can be altered to affect patients' moods during therapy sessions. Music therapy's effects on physical health, communication, social skills and self-esteem can also lead to a happier life for your child.