Learning Challenges? Try Music Therapy

[Judy Vorfeld]

Guest post by Bette Miles-Holleman

As a parent of two children on the Autistic Spectrum, I am always looking for ways to help them achieve their full potential. During my research, I read about Music Therapy and its applications for children (and adults) with learning challenges.

Music, with its powerful effect to stimulate the brain by triggering memories and emotional responses, can also help special needs children physically, by improving relaxation, muscle coordination and range of motion, and a host of other positive benefits. Studies show that Music Therapy is particularly effective for children with Autism, as well as dyslexia and ADD/ADHD.

Music Therapy can include singing, playing an instrument alone or in a group, or just listening to various music selections. Some children with learning challenges show great musical abilities, so why not encourage them in a pastime they can both enjoy as well as learn from?

My kids, Ben and Hannah, have been taking music lessons for the past year. Since then, their speech has dramatically improved. Ben, who plays the snare drum, had a stutter that has completely disappeared, and our budding pianist Hannah’s sentence structure and pronunciation have gone up exponentially.

Music has helped them in their school work, too. Their concentration levels are longer and more intense, and they can work without interruption to finish their homework. Ben plays with a local bagpipe and drum band, and Hannah studies the Suzuki Piano Method through our local junior college.

Bette Miles-Holleman is a home schooling mother of of 5, living on the West Coast. She is editor/CEO of Beauty Culture Magazine, a Giant Squid lensmaster on Squidoo, and is a guest contributor on many web sites such as DealingWithLearningDisorders and HealthyFoodForHealthyLiving.com .

[Hal Alpiar]

Welcome, Bette, to the site of the nicest person on the Internet. Judy is a gift to us all.

I appreciate your post on music therapy and can reassure anyone who might doubt its benefits that your comments stand on solid ground. I have a 40-ish profoundly developmentally-disabled daughter who performs at a 2 year-old level.

Melissa lives in a wonderful home in Yonkers, NY, called Richmond Children's Center. The caregivers there are all in the extraordinary-to-spectacular range, and they keep her happy and healthy 24/7.

The greatest tools they use to accomplish this are not in the food or motor development categories. They are musical instruments. We send toy harmonicas, guitars, pianos, etc. and the residents (we still call them all children because they are)there play with them until therere completely worn out.

Music is played all day every day throughout the home and concert trips are made as often as possible. Music is not only the international language (along, of course, with love), but it is the language that transcends all levels of mental, physical and emotional development.

It's a wondrous happening for handicapped children and adults. We cannot be too conscious of its impact and value. We need to rally around it, appreciate and foster and nurture it, sing and dance and clap our hands to the magic!

Thank you for your post and the breath of fresh air. And thanks again, Judy, for your endless discoveries. Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! - Hal