To mark International Music Day, celebrated on November 22, at 3Love Inc. we want to share the benefits of music therapy for people with disabilities and how it improves their quality of life.
Music therapy: what is it and what is it for?
Music is one of humanity’s oldest forms of artistic expression and is linked to fundamental human activities such as language and communication.
According to the definition of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), music therapy is the use of the benefits of music and musical elements (both sounds in general and their rhythm, harmony, or melody) to promote and facilitate communication, relationships, movement, or expression, satisfying people’s physical, emotional, mental, social, and cognitive needs.
Music therapy is based on the use of music to promote and improve mental and physical health through musical improvisation exercises (when creating one’s own music by singing or playing an instrument), recreation (playing an existing song), composition (to encourage learning ability), or listening (both to recorded music and live music at a concert).
Therapeutic benefits of music
According to Sunrise Medical, multiple studies confirm that music has beneficial effects on the sensory, cognitive, and motor systems. For this reason, it stimulates creativity, thinking, language, learning, and memory. Music also has a relaxing effect, as it helps reduce anxiety, stress, and nervousness, which can be especially useful in physical and emotional rehabilitation therapies.
In general, we can distinguish three levels of benefits from music therapy:
- Cognitive level
Music increases learning and orientation abilities. It also improves attention span and concentration.
- Physical level
Music helps maintain joint mobility and strengthens muscles through relaxation and reduced anxiety levels. Internalizing rhythm, beat, or melody also affects people’s physical abilities, improving their bodily response to stimuli, balance, and motor skills.
- Emotional level
Music therapy satisfies the need for leisure and escape, and strengthens social interactions, increasing self-esteem, improving social skills, and helping to prevent isolation.
Benefits of treating disability with music therapy
The beneficial effects of music on the body have made the relationship between music therapy and disability an increasingly established reality.
Currently, music therapy is particularly recommended for disorders such as autism and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It is also used to address mental health issues such as depression, stress, or anxiety, and to change inappropriate behaviors, especially in children and adolescents.
Furthermore, the feeling of well-being produced by music can help people suppress mild pain (e.g., migraines) and even reduce the intensity of chronic pain caused by more complex diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or fibromyalgia. To this, we must add the benefits of combining music therapy and physical disability, working on muscle strengthening, increasing range of motion, and performing coordination, balance, and breathing exercises more effectively, similar to other health disciplines such as physical therapy. Music therapy, in this sense, represents a complement that strengthens all these aspects from a more playful point of view.
For all these reasons, using music therapy to treat disabilities strengthens physical and motor development, improving the following skills:
- Motor skills. Music therapy applied to physical disabilities is related to muscle strengthening, coordination and balance exercises, and improved muscle posture.
- Communication skills. Music reinforces communicative behavior.
- Cognitive skills. Music therapy improves learning processes.
- Music therapy is usually done in groups, which reinforces interaction and empathy with other people.
- Music awakens feelings and allows the person to deal with emotional situations more easily and sincerely.
