Special Education Many children who have autism are non-verbal; however, they do have great auditory skills and love music. From personal experience, I know that a boy I observed and worked with in a learning support classroom loved when we put on the music and he would sing and dance when it would come on. I did a paper on music therapy at Marshall University and I found so much information about people with special needs using music. Music therapy can help students manage stress, improve communication, express feelings, and enhance memory. Research shows that musical therapy helps make connections in the brain between auditory and motor skills. A way that music therapists help students remember phrases or words is to do repetitive practice of singing the phrases and hitting the drums. These are intensive 45 minute sessions for five days a week for an eight week period. Many children who have autism are non-verbal; however, many of those students can sing even though they cannot speak. Instead of repeating yourself and sounding like a broke record, giving them music therapy might actually help them and not be as stressful on their brains. Simply playing music does not help increase communication or brain functioning; therefore, you have to make music with the children and let them be a part of it. Teachers cannot be scared of using music and think they are not skilled in music, the fact that the students are playing instruments, singing, and moving is fun and helpful; it doesn't have to be perfect. Sources: http://www.musictherapy.org/ http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/12/27/music-as-a-path-to-language-in-autism/ http://www.musicianbrain.com/#projects http://blog.ted.com/2008/04/15/machover_ellsey/
Many children who have autism are non-verbal; however, they do have great auditory skills and love music. From personal experience, I know that a boy I observed and worked with in a learning support classroom loved when we put on the music and he would sing and dance when it would come on. I did a paper on music therapy at Marshall University and I found so much information about people with special needs using music. Music therapy can help students manage stress, improve communication, express feelings, and enhance memory. Research shows that musical therapy helps make connections in the brain between auditory and motor skills. A way that music therapists help students remember phrases or words is to do repetitive practice of singing the phrases and hitting the drums. These are intensive 45 minute sessions for five days a week for an eight week period. Many children who have autism are non-verbal; however, many of those students can sing even though they cannot speak. Instead of repeating yourself and sounding like a broke record, giving them music therapy might actually help them and not be as stressful on their brains. Simply playing music does not help increase communication or brain functioning; therefore, you have to make music with the children and let them be a part of it. Teachers cannot be scared of using music and think they are not skilled in music, the fact that the students are playing instruments, singing, and moving is fun and helpful; it doesn't have to be perfect.
Sources:
http://www.musictherapy.org/
http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/12/27/music-as-a-path-to-language-in-autism/
http://www.musicianbrain.com/#projects
http://blog.ted.com/2008/04/15/machover_ellsey/