Blogpost 9: a brighter future for musical therapy

Either physical or emotional therapy can be tricky. Therapists make sure that the activities held within therapy sessions should be on a case to case basis. So goals and techniques should be explained to the patient so that it will be realistic and can be an advantage not just to the current patient but for the future use for the medical field. Just like any other therapy, it has a sequence that fits to every needs of a patient. Expectations should be explained and realistic even if it for a minor or complex kind of patient. Since we’ve been tackling music therapy about all the advantages it has and how it works for mankind, here are some citation of our generous researchers or bloggers more about the therapy.

I read an article about “The Anatomy of a Music Therapy Goal” by Andrew Littlefield from www.thegeorgecenter.com.  He was so informative that he was able to separate music as entertainment from being therapeutic. You might ask yourself while listening to your favorite music right now like, what’s my goal of listening to my favorite song anyway? What makes it my favorite? Is it because of the beat or the meaning itself? You might want to find out why on this post.

According to Littlefield, “One of the defining characteristics of music therapy is that it separates us from simply “music AS therapy”, is the fact that we have non-music goals for clients we collect and track data on. Typically, we want our goals to be S.M.A.R.T, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Limited”.  

From the word it about their goals for MT is truly self-explanatory but we’ll tackle a bit more of each one. Their strategy works on a case to case basis but of course, it is always use on every client since they have to set expectations as well. Being specific would be the first goal or first part of the therapy whereas they have explain the activity and how long it will take since learning is not a piece of cake, it consumes time for us to move forward to our next stepping stone. Measurable can be indefinite since conducting a therapy will always depend on a client’s need. It may take some time for a client to learn and unlearn things. For example, for client’s suffering from stroke, a therapist would say that it might take a client maximum of 5-6 months for them to learn to walk by themselves. Having an attainable activity for the client would be a priority of a therapist. Since the goal is to take the client to next high level. Being realistic is also similar or having the therapy be attainable. Examinations for the client will be conducted for them to measure what to do and when to do a specific task for the client. Lastly, having a therapy be time limited. Not because they have to assist other patients but to set a time for the client so that the client will have some to look forward as the day pass by conducting a series of activities. It can also make the client be goal setter as well. 

Another article that I found in the website that talk about the music therapy in the next generation and this is "Future of Music Therapy" by Olivia Andrews from www.articlesbase.com. she is the writer of music-future.com is a freelance journalist and she wrote about education, finance and many more especially the review. The article talks about how music therapy can be used in the future especially there is a lot children, adult who are having a hard time to release there stress and interact with there friends or family.

According to Andrews "Music therapy is applied by a qualified practitioner whereby music is used in a systematic manner to achieve therapeutic goals or purposes. These purposes or goals may include self awareness, social development, cognitive development and spiritual enhancement. Therefore, music therapy helps in the fulfillment of physical, psychological, communicative and social needs of the individuals. The future of music therapy is quite promising because the level of effectiveness gained in the therapeutic use of music is high."

Nowadays therapy is safest and effective program for us to promote awareness that we can use therapy in our body without using any dangerous chemical drug that we take in our body, we know that drugs can help us but with this kind of program we can help our body to overcome or cope up with our own without using any drugs.

Natural healing is best way for human being to cure our self or this is what we called therapy, therapy help you and your body to ease your minds and there is a lot of usage of using this kind of program that which we are not familiar with. Therapy help our motor skills to develop and vocabulary skills but if we are we going to explore about this we can use this in our daily life without using any drugs that might affect our body.

Blogpost 7: Music in Games?

Music is a independent source can be used by everyone, you can play it with any instrument that we have but using a little twist it will give everyone a lot of choices to use. Why is music is being use? how did we find out is a stress reliever? We found out  that music can help us relax and focus especially if we use in games, like in kiddie game, arcade game, music game, but how? well we will discuss it with the article that I research in the website.

I read an article discuss about Music therapy can used in the games. This article "Music Therapy and Fun Rhythm Games" by Martianne Stanger from www.special-ism.com. She mentioned why do we need to play rhythm games and how its help us to build our mind and body. It help us to expand our sense of attentiveness and responsiveness that essential to us.

According to Stanger, "The two main components of a musical rhythm are the beat/pulse and the rhythmic unit. They both appear repeatedly in almost every piece of music. The pulse is simple and repeats in a continuous sequence from beginning to end, while the rhythmic unit is a little bit more complicated as it is a note-pattern that appears along the regular pulse but divides the duration between the beats."

Rhythm games can be use not for kids but also can be use by everyone its up to us on how we are going to use music as stress reliever, with a simple games it help us to improve our response and coordination skills with a different level of games and motor skill work. Music for us is just a plain music that we listen if we get bored, but for some of us can help us to improve our meditation, the calmness of our mind and body, improve our attention and concentration.

As you can see we can mix together the music, games and activity that can be used as a stress reliever there is a therapist who use music and a twist of game and this is what we called Rhythm Games. For therapist its help the children and adult to communicate more to there friends by using drum techniques.

I read an article called "Rhythm in communication, the fundamental basis of music therapy" by Benjaman Schöglerby from http://skoogmusic.com. The author talks about how Rhythm play a role as a link to the other people. If you play drums with other people you can create a communication with them, with that you can easily express yourself and release your anxiety or stress that hinder your response and attention.

Accordin to Schöglerby "Music therapy does provide a safe platform to explore rhythmic capacity; it is defined by the American music therapy association as “the prescribed use of music by a qualified person to effect positivechanges in the psychological, physical, cognitive or social functioning of individuals with health or educational problems”. A key element is the therapist’s skill or strength in providing supportive and sensitive rhythm, human rhythm, in synrhythmia, the act of sharing time constructively (Trevarthen, 2007). As musicians we focus on manipulating rhythm in sound, making it overt, available to others and crucially inviting/pleasing or engaging. The importance of human rhythmus in communicative behaviour is borne out by the positive impacts music therapy has for individuals with linguistic or communicative deficits when combined with more traditional speech and language therapies (Brotons and Koger, 2000; Wigram, 2002).

Rhythm games can be used by individuals its up to us on how were are we going to apply it to our self especially if we have a group of friends who wants to relax and release there stress. This kind of activity help people to communicate and interact mo re often to the other at the same time its decrease the level of anxiety because you are part of the game and you lively interact with them freely just by tapping the drum or singing with them while playing an instrument.

Music is a mix of rhythm games and therapy which help us to release our enormous emotion inside our body and mind at the same time its improve our ability to interact with other and help our communication skill by expressing our emotion using music which is the link to the other people that who are shy or difficulties to communicate or interact with them.

Blog post 8: Patients that mostly caters music therapy

Music is amazing in a way that it is universal. Anyone can use it either for personal and medical purposes. Music therapy is used in a variety of populations including children and adults with developmental disabilities (autism, mental retardation, stroke, etc.)

We take advantage of our youth times. We do things without sometimes thinking twice. During old-school times, a person’s life expectancy would go around 80 – 90 years of age. Since most of the food they consume before are all organic. Engaging to sports and educational stuff would be the thing that they consider as technology whereas being witty is what they consider a trend. Nowadays, we would consume any living thing and since there’s a mass production of food and resources, fast foods pops up like mushrooms where literally “fast foods” are served with some are highly intoxicated for our body which shortens the life expectancy of a person from 45 – 80 years of age. Technology would be the one considered as a trend since we have to go with the flow of a lifestyle we look up to. These two (2) are the most that uses music as a part of medical field which is clinically proven since during therapies; brain stimulation and studies are proven.

I read an article about “Stroke Rehabilitation and Music Therapy” by one of the contributors and editor from www.medicalnewstoday.com Wiley Blackwell. He researched and introduced how music therapy helps a patient suffering from stroke.

According to Blackwell, “Music therapy techniques, including listening to live and recorded music were employed to try to improve speech, behavior and pain in patients with brain injuries, and although outcomes in some cases were positive, evidence was limited. It is expected that larger samples sizes will be used in future studies to enable sound recommendations for clinical practice.”

Now, having said the difference of our lives from past to present, there’s one thing that we all trying to avoid, stroke. It is an unavoidable brain injury that either a healthy or unhealthy person can have. Imagine no one can escape this kind of brain injury. Since we are on the hype of high end technology, doctors studies all possible ways to somewhat cure a person with a stroke. More than a million people suffer from stroke each year. They would even produce a medicine to somehow lessen the brain injury but now, music therapy came into the picture. It is now practiced and used all over the world to help a person suffering from stroke.

During pregnancy, a series of tests is performed to check if there are some impurities, if in case there are, it can be somewhat cured on the early stage of pregnancy. Unfortunately, ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder cannot be detected unless a child is born. It can only be detected if a child had grown to a toddler. There are indications that a child is a victim of ASD. Nowadays, people on medical field are striving to know, detect, and of course prevent autism. There are therapies that cater a child with ASD. Since music is universal, music therapy is also part of their medical tool to help a patient recover or do better.

I was lucky to find an article that shares insights about music therapy, an article about “Music and Autism Research” by a medical group of San Diego Music Therapists from www.coastmusictherapy.com  They shared their experiences and ideas on how it works especially for a patient with complex disability.  

According to the writers of San Diego Music Therapy, "Music and autism research support the benefits of music as a processing strength and the positive effects music therapy has in the treatment of individuals with autism.  Coast Music Therapy has compiled the latest studies with the most persuasive results and regularly updates this list to reflect the most current research. Individuals with autism show equal or superior abilities in pitch processing, labeling of emotions in music, and musical preference when compared to typically developing peers. The most compelling evidence supporting the clinical benefits of music therapy lies in the areas of social-emotional responsiveness and communication, including increased compliance, reduced anxiety, increased speech output, decreased vocal stereotypy, receptive labeling, and increased interaction with peers. Preliminary findings also support the potential for music to assist in the learning of daily routines”.

Since communication is also a hindrance for a victim of ASD, music is used for them to feel involved. For example, a child with ASD is introduced to a music instrument; it engages the emotional part of their brain that reacts every time they play an instrument. They use it as a communication to us and it makes them express themselves.

I've learned that during this research about MT, it plays a major role to the medical field. Since at first I thought that music only caters the fulfillment of our emotion, it also caters people in need to communicate and be able to express.