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An Article Weekly: “Use of Music to Improve Speech Production”

Each Monday, I will be writing up a short, non-academic review of an article I’ve found interesting. These articles will be taken from music therapy peer-reviewed journals. 

The article I’ll briefly review tonight is, “Use of Music to Improve Speech Production in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Theoretical Orientation,” by Hayoung A. Lim. The article was published in Music Therapy Prespectives, (2009), Vol. 27.

I chose this article because I presented to a group of speech-language pathologists last week, and have since been more and more interested in the role of speech and language in music therapy. I have four clients who are not verbally communicative but are expressive in other ways.

This article is a literature review, and a somewhat lengthy one at that.

I’ll briefly describe three pieces of information regarding speech production I took from the piece:

  1. The two different kinds of echolalia (defined in this article as “the repetition of utterance with similar intonation of words or phrases that someone else has said” p. 105) are immediate and delayed. Immediate is as it seems, and delayed echolalia can occur as late as weeks following the utterance. Research suggests that echolalia serves as a communicative function, and is also considered a developmental behavior. Echolalia is known as a “speech imitation skill,” and can be targeted in music experiences. Page 105
  2. Gestalt language forms are defined in this article as “unanalyzed units of speech,” or chunks of speech, routines and patterns within speech, and formulaic utterances that do not complete a cohesive piece of communicative language. With this form of language acquisition that some children with ASD use, these children might be relying in echolalia to interact with others because they are unable at that point in their language development to combine the chunks, if you will. Pages 106 & 107
  3. Children with ASD typically are preoccupied with routine, and therefore may be more attuned to the predictability of some speech structures and not the context of them. Page 107

Here are three points that implicate the use of music in speech production with children who have ASD:

  1. “Music perception follows the same principles of general perceptual organization, such as patter recognition and grouping information into categorical units (p. 108).” Music exists in time, and with children who are interested in predicting events to occur, songs with familiar openings and closings can be appealing.
  2. There has been found significant positive correlation between musical vocal behavior and non-musical speech production behaviors. Page 111
  3. Music often provides an enjoyable environment and learning situation. Page 112

There are so many more things I could and should say about the relationship between music and speech, but I will leave it for another post.

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Not a newfound podcast, but a good one

I am always looking for great reads and great podcasts, and there is one podcast that has not let me down yet. The Coffee Klatch had a fantastic interview of Dr. Duncan McKinlay, a psychologist who works with children and adolescents in clinical and school psychology. Dr. McKinlay has written about his own diagnosis of Tourette syndrome and shed some new light on this diagnosis.

If you’re interested in learning more about The Coffee Klatch, go ahead and click here.

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Newfound podcast: …in their words

As I am now working almost entirely with children, both neurotypical and those with special needs, I am in search of more resources, relevant material, and tools.

I drive a lot. When I drive, I love to listen to a variety of podcasts.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been listening to the podcast …in their words, which is published by the American Music Therapy Association‘s early childhood online magazine, Imagine.

I’m curious about the podcast, though, because I’m not sure whether or not it’s still being created. Does anyone know?

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Thoughts on an article

Earlier this month, some of my music therapist friends got together for another of our monthly meetings. Unfortunately, I did not attend the meeting because I didn’t feel well. But, at this meeting, everyone (myself included) prepared some thoughts on a music therapy research piece or article of their choice.

The article I chose to read was “Bereaved Parents’ Experiences of Music Therapy with their Terminally Ill Child,” by K. Lindenfelser, D. Grocke, and K. McFerran. The article was published in the Journal of Music Therapy, XLV (3), 2008.

The purpose of the study “was to investigate bereaved parents’ experiences of music therapy with their terminally ill child” (330), and from the study there were five themes that arose: 1. Music therapy was valued as a means to alter the affected persons’ perception of the situation, 2. Music therapy was a “significant component of remembrance,” 3. Music therapy was a multi-faceted experience, 4. Music therapy “enhanced communication and expression,” and 5. Shared perceptions of and recommendations for providing music therapy as a service.

The authors expound upon the concept of emotional bonding between the parents and the terminally ill child, and how music therapy supports such a process. The music therapy provided in these situations had been reported as being “a positive focus for both the child and family at a time when most aspects of life felt daunting” (332).

Also covered was the practice of using music as a legacy for the family to have following the child patient’s death. Ideas for experiences that came to my mind when reading this section were those of songwriting together as a family unit and/or recording a favorite song together.

In the Results section of the article, some data that was collected indicated that “music therapy was one of the only things that allowed [the child patient] to continue to thrive/accomplish/achieve” (337).

One of the parents involved in the study noted that the music that was being used in their sessions made her more emotionally vulnerable. I am not sure from reading in what capacity that parent participated in the sessions. I truly cannot imagine the emotions that are experienced in this kind of situation.

The last piece of the article that I’d underlined when reading was in the Discussion section, where one of the parents described the music therapy sessions as something that allowed her daughter to continue “being a child” (341). I can only imagine the identities medically fragile patients assume, and especially when they’re young, I have to believe the playfulness of childhood is all but lost.

Has anyone else read this piece? Has anyone read anything lately that they really like or dislike?

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More apps I’ve found

On Tuesday I was surprised with an iPad 2. That night, I proceeded to install several apps. I haven’t yet used any apps with any clients, but I hope to start doing so on a regular basis next week.

Tomorrow I begin my work with a couple of classes of children at a daycare. Though I know those particular clients will be too young to engage in it, I’ve found the app BrainPOP to be potentially useful with typically functioning children of an older age. The app provides a movie that changes on a daily basis. The content of the movies are educational; this month’s “spotlight” is Black History, and today’s featured movie covers civil rights.

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Newfound podcast: The Coffee Klatch

One of my new followers on Twitter a few weeks ago was The Coffee Klatch, and though the description seemed applicable to music therapy and my interests, I didn’t investigate too much until the day before last when I saw a tweet about their upcoming podcast guest being a doctor who specializes in the care of young patients with ADHD. I was in the car quite a lot today, and was so happy to have subscribed to their podcast. The host, Marianne Russo, interviews a number of specialists in several fields who work with children with special needs. The episode I heard today covered a controversial op ed in The New York Times regarding medicating children. I found the interview to be pretty interesting.

Investigate The Coffee Klatch as you’d like. I’ll keep listening.

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The world is mine

For Valentine’s Day, I received to my surprise a gorgeous iPad 2, complete with a red leather case. Tonight I installed around 15 apps, all useful for my work. I am so excited I’m not so sure I can sleep tonight. I probably should, though.

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IN2L

I wonder if anyone out there who works in nursing homes has ever heard of, or uses, the IN2L system. Ours has had it for at least the year I’ve been working on their staff. The IN2L (stands for It’s Never 2/Too Late) is a computer system (pardon my lack of technological language) that provides a number of programs, if you will, that are supposed to be interactive and can be shared with groups or individuals. The touch screen allows for some easy use by a resident.

I don’t find the system particularly useful, and the times I’ve tried to work with it, it hasn’t exactly provided what it says it will, but that’s another story.

The reason I bring it up is because my fellow music therapist/palliative care unit coordinator brought it into our office and said that with the system’s last update, there was installed a “music therapy” program. Hm. She said that the program’s title was “Music Therapy,” and that, when opened, it provided a large number of song selections from different genres of music. This is very nice, and seems to be a step up from the music offerings the system had before, but, I question why they call it “Music Therapy.” A better title could be “Music As Therapy,” or simply, “Music,” but not “Music Therapy.” Unless, of course, a music therapist is using those programs with a resident, and having that supplement the therapeutic process.

I’ll have to do more investigating of it. 

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More podcasts to hear

My list of podcasts is quickly becoming just as full as my Google Reader. I have been subscribed to The Music Therapy Show with Janice Harris for a bit, and though I read the blogs of Rachel Rambach, Michelle Erfurt, and Kimberly Sena Moore, I had yet to subscribe to their joint podcast, Music Therapy Round Table. I really liked their last podcast in which they spoke about their professional inspirations. I have heard some good things about their service, Music Therapy Pro. I need to look further into this, as I can already see its use as a huge benefit.