Jennifer Puckett MT-BC, Owner, Therabeat, Inc.
What is Music Therapy?
According to the American Music Therapy Association, "Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program."
So what does that really mean?
Music therapy uses music to achieve non-musical goals.
How is this accomplished?
Singing supports speech production, rhythm supports gross motor skills, and playing instruments supports fine motor skills. Live music is engaging and can be utilized to help peers interact with one another, working on social skills at age-appropriate levels. Memory for song lyrics can aid memory for academic materials, helping children learn colors, shapes, even multiplication and division. While singing songs and playing instruments can help increase overall attention span to activities, it can also be used to decrease agitation and calm children.
Examples of outcomes that can be provided through music therapy sessions:
- Increased Attention
- Increased Self-Expression
- Improved Verbal Skills
- Enhanced Sensory-Motor Skills
- Increased Cognitive Functioning
- Decreased Self-Stimulation
- Improved Behavior
And all of this happens while children are having fun engaging in music!
Why did I chose music therapy?
In high school I had the incredible opportunity to work with a group of pre-schoolers with special needs in my community. I was battling between the decision of becoming a special education teacher or a music educator and was hoping that my volunteer work would lead me to the right decision. My amazing experience in the classroom actually led me to decide on not one or the other, but to combine my love for both special needs children and music. By the end of my year volunteering in the classroom, I had decided to become a music therapist.
I had only been volunteering for a few weeks when I overheard a boy with autism sing. This was astounding to me because this young boy did not talk or use any means of adaptive communication. As I waslked closer to the child I realized that I was definitely hearing the voice of this littler four-year-old singing "Home on the Range." I walked over to the boy and began to sing with him and for the first time in my three weeks in the classroom, he made eye contact with me and smiled. From then on, I sang with this sweet boy and used music to teach him the alphabet, colors, and farm animals, as well as using music as a way for him to engage with other children in the classroom.
Whenever people ask me what music therapy is or why I decided to become a music therapist, I think of this sweet boy and smile, silently thanking him for his influence on me and showing me the beauty of music. I grew up around music and have always loved music for its lovely melody and harmonies, its comfort when I'm sad, its excitement when I'm happy, or the memory the hearing of a certain song brings. But seeing a boy communicate for the first time or bonding with a child through music is what makes it truly beautiful and demonstrates music's greatest blessing.
Hanna Ivey Bush, MT-BC
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