At present, the important international academic groups for music therapy include the World Federation for Music Therapy, the European Federation for Music Therapy, the Music Therapy Working Group of the European Psychotherapy Association, the Guided Imagery and Music Therapy Association, and the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Institute. Music therapy is used in a variety of clinical areas. According to the American Music Therapy Association in 1999, about 4,000 nationally registered music therapists in the United States work in the following areas; brain injury, brain hearing impairment, obstetrics, learning disabilities, surgery, prematurity, cerebral palsy, autism, psychosis, Alzheimer’s, post-stroke, child psychotherapy, speech and language disorders, hospice, drug/alcohol, asthma, normal adult Psychotherapy, etc. We have achieved very good results. Music is especially important for children’s brain development. Music therapy associations have been formed in over 200 countries around the world, and a World Congress of Music Therapy is held every two years. The following is a brief description of the top ten roles of music therapy for children!
1. Music promotes the physiological role of children’s brain development.
The two hemispheres of the brain have their own advantages: the right hemisphere is the representational storage system, dedicated to recording music, painting, movement and other image information; the left hemisphere is the word storage system, dedicated to recording concepts, defining linguistic information. The information capacity of the right brain is hundreds of thousands of times that of the left brain, and the right brain is like a huge collection of video tape warehouse. Scientists have shown in recent years that the average person uses only 10% of the brain’s potential, leaving 90% undeveloped in childhood, and these brain resources are discarded in adulthood. Using brain imaging techniques, it has been found that there is a clear difference between the left and right side of the brain in response to sound stimulation, with blood flow to the left brain rising during verbal stimulation and blood flow to the right brain rising during musical stimulation.
In addition to the fact that music therapy benefits the development of the auditory cortex, listening to music also has a positive effect on the development of the corpus callosum, which contributes to the communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. Music enhances communication and liaison between different parts of the brain, and makes information processing in the brain faster and more efficient. Musicians who receive musical training in early childhood have a larger corpus callosum (a structural tissue that connects the left and right hemispheres) than the average person.
For children with cerebral palsy, who already have brain damage of their own and can use less of their brain’s potential than normal people, it is extremely important to restore brain function or develop the brain’s remaining potential. Most children with cerebral palsy are right-handed, and verbal stimulation is sufficient in daily life, so the left brain is better developed and the right brain function is less developed, so music stimulation for children with cerebral palsy is very important for the development of the whole brain.
2. The physical role of music in promoting children’s brain development.
Since the auditory center on the cerebral cortex is adjacent to the nociceptive center, the excitement of the auditory center caused by musical stimulation can effectively inhibit the adjacent nociceptive center, increase the excitement of the brain, promote the secretion of hormones or neuromediators that are beneficial to health through the regulation of nerves and body fluids, achieve the regulation of blood circulation, strengthen human metabolism, clear fatigue, fight depression, anxiety and other psychological The occurrence of crisis, alleviate and reduce the symptoms of mental illness until recovery.
3, the role of music to promote the development of children’s memory.
Enjoying or playing music can strengthen the functions of the mental and nervous system, make visual memory, auditory memory to be exercised, and can strengthen the emotional experience memory. Music leads to increased speed, persistence, and accuracy of memory in children. Physiologists have also found the mystery of music to promote memory: because the human memory process is closely related to the “limbic system” of the brain, and music can stimulate the “limbic system” to secrete more hormones, enzymes, acetylcholine and other substances, which can have a wide range of effects on the function of the central nervous system. These substances can have a wide range of effects on the function of the central nervous system, and promote the improvement of memory ability.
4. The role of music in promoting the development of children’s attention.
People in the appreciation or playing music, it is necessary to concentrate in order to carry out, and music and its specific rhythm more help focus attention. After a long period of music practice, their attention will certainly be strengthened. The human ear first takes the sound of
5, the role of music to promote the development of children’s imagination.
Music often expresses a kind of hazy artistic mood, without too many color images to describe, and requires the listener to combine their own experience or guided by others to show in their minds through thinking and association, so it can give full play to the human imagination.
6. The role of music in promoting the development of children’s abstract thinking ability.
Music changes the activity of brain nerve cells. Even passively listening to a piano sonata for 10 minutes will result in a more orderly and efficient pattern of electrical impulses passing through the higher information processing areas of the brain. The brain is more fully prepared to process the various intellectual skills that are necessary for balancing budgetary income and expenses or for dealing with computerized algebraic language problems.
The musical image is a relatively abstract art form that can only be understood through thought. The rhythm, tempo, and structure of music are highly logical and almost rival the highly logical nature of the “queen of sciences”, mathematics. Regularly enjoying and playing music can inspire wisdom and enhance understanding.
7. The role of music in promoting the development of children’s intelligence.
Research has proven that music plays a positive role in promoting the development of human intelligence. The famous psychologist Paisley discovered a long time ago that the left side of the human brain controls the right side of the human organ and is in charge of language and logical thinking functions; the right side of the brain controls the left side of the human organ and is in charge of music, art and image thinking functions. The right brain, therefore also known as the “music brain”, but the “poor” right hemisphere of the brain is often neglected and neglected, many people even think that music is only used for the flowers and flowers, can be dispensed with. But in fact, the role of music is to exercise people’s image thinking ability, so that the five senses and limbs sensitive coordination and rapid response, so that people’s left and right brain at the same time to develop and apply, enhance human creativity and imagination.
Glenn Schellenberg, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, has done a study on music.
Schellenberg conducted an experiment on the relationship between music and IQ, in which he randomly divided 144 6-year-old children into four groups. He then had three of the groups attend instrumental, vocal and drama studies at the prestigious Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto over a nine-month period, while the other group served as a control group that did not attend any music-related studies. Before and after the experiment, researchers tested the IQ of these students by standardized testing methods, and the results showed that the children who participated in instrumental and vocal studies increased their IQ by an average of seven IQ points, while the children in the drama group and the control group increased their IQ by an average of only four IQ points.
Although the conclusions of this experiment have been questioned by other experts, children’s intelligence is constantly developing, and the fact that their IQ scores were 7 points higher in early childhood is enough to convince their parents that these children will accelerate forward at a higher starting point.
8. The role of music in promoting children’s language development.
As two parallel systems that develop in the same way, language and music have many of the same characteristics. In the first year of life, it is difficult to distinguish between the teething and spontaneous humming precursors of infants. They begin to speak and vocalize by listening to and imitating the nonverbal cues of their caregivers, and gradually understand music just as language is learned. Music facilitates language learning by emphasizing rhythm, repetition, word-for-word and pauses between words.
Music therapy is combined with speech therapy to improve phonological and expressive skills through musical activities, starting with melodic elements.
9. The role of music in promoting children’s psychological development.
The frequency and sound pressure of musical sound waves cause a psychological response. Benign music can increase the excitability of the cerebral cortex, which can improve people’s mood, stimulate their feelings and uplift their spirits. It also helps to eliminate bad psychological states such as tension, anxiety, depression and terror caused by psychological and social factors, and improve stress capacity.
In the process of cerebral palsy rehabilitation therapy, choosing appropriate background music or performing appropriate physical function exercises during the music therapy process can often improve the emotions of the child and prompt the child to actively cooperate with the rehabilitation therapy.
10, the role of music to promote the development of social interaction of children.
Music activities such as musical instrument ensemble, chorus, music games, dance, etc., is itself a social interaction activities. By organizing various musical activities, we provide an opportunity for children with cerebral palsy to express and vent their inner emotions through music and verbal communication, so that patients can sympathize, understand and support each other in emotional communication. In this way, while the therapist is relieved of various psychological distress and pain, he or she also gains to the satisfaction of self-expression and success, thus enabling him or her to increase self-confidence, improve self-evaluation, and promote psychological health.