BellaOnline Forums Family Special Needs Children Music and Music Therapy

Children benefit from having music in their lives from infancy, whether it is a mother singing a lullaby or helping a baby participate in pat-a-cake or itsy bitsy fingerplay.

Children who have difficulty remembering spoken words can sometimes remember whole paragraphs when they are the sung in a favorite song.

Playing musical instruments, singing along to videos and DVDs, or making up their own songs and music is an important part of childhood.

Dr. Phil recently had a show about the importance of music in school and community programs, featuring the Grammy Foundation and others who have had the benefit of music education.

Music therapy is a wonderful way to support, encourage and educate children with special needs.

I would love to read stories here about the role music has played in your child's life, education, performance or recreation.

For information and links see

Music Education - Making Your Voice Heard
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art33733.asp

Children with special needs benefit from participation in school music programs, expressing themselves by playing instruments, writing and singing songs, learning and being included in the arts.

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Music and Music Therapy at Special Needs Children on BellaOnline

Once upon a time, long ,long ago; I had a scholarship to college. Which after 1 year I idiotically threw away to marry my, now ex-husband! The very funny thing about it all is that I was studying to be a music therapist (Troy State did a special program for me w/ a dble major in music & psychology, which would transfer upon graduate school). The reason it is funny (ironic - not ha ha)is that now I have a son that has Asperger's syndrome, and the group of children i was mainly focusing on at the time was autistic disorders!
I never did finish that degree, but i have watched how Michael bloomed when he entered band in middle school. i was very worried because he is such a perfectionist; if he can't get it right the first try - he used to fly into rages. Music takes practice, and you don't just pick up a sax and sound like Kenny G. Although he picked it up and did grab 1st chair! But this was the first thing he was willing to work on and practice. The other funny thing was he used to be completely tone deaf (which drove me crazy- because Half of my scholarship was vocal/piano). But when he started playing sax, it was like he could hear all of a sudden what he was singing. AND his sensitivity to outside noises went down (he used to go ballistic when he heard the toilet flush or the vacuum cleaner)

I don't know if any of this is "scientific"- but it sure wasn't coincidence! <img src="/images/graemlins/music.gif" alt="" />

As a mother of a child with autism I can say that music has played a large role in my son's life. He loves music and will sing along with the songs, he has made wonderful progress with developing some speech on his own and not just copying what he hears. H

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My second favorite performance at our local talent show was a young man with autism who has a beautiful voice - his family moved to the other side of the state now and I still can hear him singing. If my own son had not participated, his performance would have been my favorite...

Pam