I would like to highlight a different blog today, a new twitter and professional friend of mine Natalie Mullis MT-BC, owner and blogger of Key Changes Music Therapy. Natalie recently wrote a series on “Why Music Therapy Works” and I wanted to highlight a few passages for you today. These passages are very interesting to me as a Developmental Therapist and Music Therapist and especially ring true for the populations that I am currently working with. Please be sure to visit her blog for more wonderful information about “Why Music Therapy Works” and to continue reading these posts.
Music Therapy and Young Children
“Music is Multimodal: The skills that we learn as young children are not limited to one sensory area. A baby hearing a sound and then looking for the source utilizes both auditory and visual processing, as well as the cognitive process to confirm that it was indeed the source of the sound. When the music therapist strums the guitar, the child will hear the sound (or feel the vibrations), look at it’s source, and wait for it to occur again to confirm it.”
Music Therapy and Individuals on the Autism Spectrum
“Music isn’t Scary: As mentioned in the Young Children post, music has the ability to instantly bypass the fear centers of our brain. Of course, dependent on sensory issues, certain instruments may need to be included or excluded, but the principle remains the same. When our brains perceive a stimulus as a threat, higher level processing (ie. learning) is impossible. Music allows the brain to relax and permit information to access our higher brain function so that learning can take place.”
As a Music Therapy provider and advocate, I am always looking for new ways to describe what music therapy is and why Music Therapy works, so Thank You Natalie for giving me a few more words to use 🙂