How Can Music Therapy Benefit Children with Special Needs?
Cognitive/Academic Songs act as a “mnemonic” device to aid in memory of new or difficult cognitive/academic concepts by organizing information into smaller chunks, making it easier to encode and retain. Musical presentation also provides an optimal learning environment for those individuals who are highly attentive to music activities, but are often distractible with other modalities. Educational research supports that our ability to learn and later use new concepts and information is best when we are motivated and the material presented is meaningful to us. Communication/Social Interaction Because singing and speech share many similarities, yet are accessed differently by the brain, music strategies can be used as a means to functional communication. Vocal imitation, initiation of verbal language, increasing length of verbal utterance, and learning of new vocabulary can be approached by embedding desired language responses into song lyrics, followed by fading of the music to spoken la
