Music Therapy can be used as one of the tool to nurture our child’s health! I’ve attended an educational seminar on Autism in Malaysia this afternoon. In one of the session, it talked about Music Therapy that is now available to help Autistic children in their learning. Before I went to the seminar, I met a parent who asked me if music therapy can help her Down-Syndrome child in his learning. I’ll share some of the information about music therapy and how it helps in nurturing our child’s health!
We can’t separate music from our daily life. We need music. Why? Different music gives us different satisfaction or sensation. When we are down, we tend to choose music that can motivate us or help us release our sadness. It is a tool to express and release our inner feelings or emotion. Music is very individual because different people have different taste of music. Some love Rock N Roll, some love sentimental love song, some love oldies and so on. Our choice of music helps us soothe our emotion and release our stress. Experts found that the rhythm or the beat of the music has calming effect to the listener. This is because our human energetic system is extremely influenced by sounds. Our body responds specifically to certain tones and frequencies. If we choose a piece of music that we like, it helps to :
- reduce heart rates
- reduce pain during dental procedures
- reduce stress
- reduce anxiety
- promote relaxation
- improve mood
- decrease in depression
Music therapy is used by trained professional to achieve therapeutic goals using music! Music therapist uses various types of musical instruments such as bells, drum, piano, maraccas, shakers, cymbals etc. to help in healing purposes. At times, it also combines with body rhythm such as clapping hands, stepping feet and so on. Remember that music therapist is different from music teacher. The latter is just teaching music but not trained in healing. There are less than 8 professional music therapists in Malaysia!
Music therapist uses music intervention to affect an individual behavior, seeking his/her strenghts and weaknesses in order to achieve therapeutic goals:-
- Gross and fine motor skills
- Social/Interpersonal development
- Cognitive/intellectual development
- Self-awareness
- Spiritual enhancement
For instance, music therapy helps arthritis patients in pain relief, reduce anxiety, positive changes in both mood and emotional state. Stroke patients are motivated to heal with positive emotions and they are more open to participate in traditional therapies. Therefore, music therapy helps speed up the healing process. It is now applied to children with Autism, Down-Syndrome, Celebral Palsy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
