14 DAY TRIAL // A group of investigators in Australia has recently determined that subjecting disabled children and their parents to music therapy has numerous, positive benefits. Some of these include marked improvements in the participants' social, communication and motor skills.
The study was carried out by experts at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), who were led by researcher Kate Williams. The team focused on the Sing & Grow music therapy intervention and the effects it had on the young ones and on adults.
In addition to helping the children, music therapy also made it easier for kids and their parents to bond, and went a long way towards improving the mental health of parents, the QUT team explains.
Increasing numbers of Australian researchers are turning to this type of therapy for a variety of applications. Usually, the healthcare experts work with both children and their parents, as the results appear to be most beneficial in this setup.
Therapists, on the other hand, use music to calm down young kids and babies, to develop their social, and motor skills, and to encourage positive parenting. This type of therapy is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
“Music therapists provide a range of services to children with and without disabilities and their parents in a wide range of settings, which is likely to be similarly beneficial. We used self-reporting from the parents, as well as therapist observations across a 10 session intervention,” Williams explains.
“We found the effects of music therapy were all very positive for children with disabilities, and for me, the most interesting part was the effect that it had on parents' mental health.” she goes on to say.
“We were surprised and pleased that it happened because it shows that music therapy can be a shared positive experience for both parent and child. We found there were some really great connections being made between the children, the parents, and each mother-child pairing,” the expert adds.
One of the reasons why this type of therapy is so efficient is because music is tremendously motivating for children. Williams explains that cases in which kids are not captivated by music are rare.
Once you have a child's attention, it's a lot easier to work with them on motor skill exercises, as well as other activities kids aren't normally too fond of. But experts do not get the same result if they try to get the young ones to do these exercises before playing music.
“Music and the brain work well together, and stimulating rhythmic areas of the brain can stimulate motor responses and reflexes; there are also links in the brain between music and language. A lot of this research has been done with adults, but the same applies with children,” Williams adds.