Music Therapy: Could Music Help my Child's Speech and Language Skills? (Guest blog post)
We are pleased to be sharing a “guest blog” today written by Music Therapist, Junie Baek . We are excited to be partnering with Junie in January, 2020 to provide the ComMusicate™️ program to children with speech-language needs. Below, Junie provides some background about music therapy as well as how music can be a powerful tool to support our kiddos working on speech-language goals.
Music is often described as the “universal language of mankind”. However, when music therapy is combined with speech-language therapy, one might wonder: “What is music therapy and how is music related to speech and language?”
What is Music Therapy?
According to the Canadian Association of Music Therapy (CAMT):
“Music therapy is a discipline in which credentialed professionals (Music Therapist Accredited) use music purposefully within therapeutic relationships to support development, health, and well-being. Music therapists use music safely and ethically to address human needs within cognitive, communicative, emotional, musical, physical, social, and spiritual domains”.
Who is an Accredited Music Therapist?
An Accredited Music Therapist (MTA) in Canada:
· Complete an undergraduate or/and graduate level music therapy education,
· Complete a 1000-hour supervised clinical internship, and
· Complete the American Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) exam with a passing grade.
Major Facts About the Relationship Between Music, Speech, and Language
1. More engagement in music making can result in a better communicator!
According to a scientific study, it is proven that both music and language are processed in Broca’s Area. Broca’s Area plays an important role in helping us to understand and use syntax – the rules that make a sentence makes sense. Another study shows that musicians have more grey matter in Broca’s Area. These results suggest that engaging in music making and musical activities stimulates Broca’s Area and will result in strengthening one’s ability to process and use more proper sentences.
2. Music, speech, and language all got rhythm!
Rhythm is one of the important structural elements of both language and music. Speech and music involve use of patterns, different accents/stresses, and pitches of sound. In other words, both speech and music are rhythmic. Studies have shown that humans are highly sensitive to both rhythmic characteristics of language and music when in the process of developing language skills. This suggests that patterns of rhythm, stress, intonation, and phrasing are potentially influential in one’s development of both language and musical skills. Looking at the scientific findings mentioned above, one can simply draw a conclusion that use of singing or activities with rhythmic music can influence one’s language development!
What’s the Benefit of Combining Music Therapy with Speech-Language Therapy?
· Music making can serve as a way of communicating non-verbally for the participants who struggle to freely express themselves, while also being a positive reinforcement to encourage participants to communicate verbally.
· Singing and playing instruments in a group setting can encourage participants to engage in social communication.
· Music can make a therapy less intimidating and more fun for children.
According to a survey of 695 music therapists, 44.6% said they collaborate with Speech-Language Pathologists, 40.3% with Physical Therapist, and 47.2% with Occupational Therapists (Register, 2002). This seems to tell us that many modern therapists consider co-treatment as an effective method of therapy and are looking to collaboration.
In January 2020, I, an Accredited Music Therapist, will be running ComMusicate program with Allie Forte, a Speech-Language Pathologist from Uptown Speech. We will be working with children aged between 4 to 7 with speech, language, and communication needs; combining both our expertise.
Junie Baek, MTA, MMT, MT-BC
