PediatricDigest: How Do I Know If Music Therapy Is Right For My Child?

Our music therapy team discusses what music therapy is, who can benefit from it, and the different goals that can be addressed through music therapy.

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How Do I Know If Music Therapy Is Right For My Child?

How Do I Know If Music Therapy Is Right For My Child?

Everyone knows that kids love music, but who is a good fit for music therapy? What might indicate that music therapy would be helpful for making progress? Today, we’re covering signs to look out for, a general overview of what music therapy is, and what goals can be addressed to provide a broader view of how music therapy can be helpful for your child.

A common misconception we hear is that music therapy is just for making kids happy or giving them a fun “music break.” While music therapy does make kids happy and can be a fun brain break, music therapy is just as goal oriented as any other therapy, just utilizing a different method of achieving them!

What Is Music Therapy?

Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based practice of using music to reach a variety of non-musical goals. These goals can range from cognitive function to social skills, emotional expression, or even physical/motor function. Although the oldest recorded reference to using music therapeutically for healing was in 1789, it wasn’t until the 1940’s that national music therapy organizations began to appear (American Music Therapy Association). Even so, only in recent decades, with the increased desire for non-traditional alternatives to addressing mental health and supporting neurodivergence, has the effectiveness of music therapy has begun to be acknowledged.

Unlike other therapies, such as physical or speech therapy, music therapy focuses less on scope of practice and more on method. Music therapy capitalizes on the naturally human instinct to respond to music, so music therapists focus on utilizing and applying the natural elements of music such as anticipation/release, dynamics, and inflection to any goal area. Neurologic brain scans indicate that music triggers many parts of the brain simultaneously and helps develop neural connections both faster, longer lasting, and even around damaged areas. Further, music is a multisensory experience that is naturally play-based, which makes it particularly regulating for our neurodivergent friends.

Music therapy can be used to address almost any goal area in the following domains: Communicative, Cognitive, Physical/Motor, Social, Emotional/Psychological, and Functional. Here are some examples of potential goals through music therapy:

Increasing attention span (joint or sustained)
Communicating wants/needs
Problem solving
Answering open-ended questions
Emotional identification/expression
Independence
Cognitive flexibility (not getting your way/breaking routines)
Turn-taking and sharing
Sensory integration
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
Following directions
Self-expression
Etc.

Who Is Music Therapy Best For?

Children’s responses to music, especially in neurodivergent populations, can typically be categorized into 3 groups:

Music learners (or music communicators)
Music motivated
Music regulated

These refer to how music specifically wires a recipient’s brain, because every client responds to music differently. In brief, music is either triggering their communication and language, attention, or sensory/emotional cortexes. To take an example from hand-washing, music learners will be able to understand and/or remember the steps significantly better if sung. A music learner may also tell you they need to wash their hands by singing the song. Alternatively, a music-motivated kid is unlikely to be interested in or willing to wash their hands unless there is singing or music happening. A music-regulated kid would likely be bouncing off the walls and unable to even be transitioned to the sink unless music is present.

Your child might fit into one or all three categories, and it is the music therapist’s job to figure out what role music is playing in their brains and bodies in order to best craft strategies and goals to support their development.

Questions while considering if you have a music-responsive kid:

Do you use music to calm your child down during or after an emotional breakdown/outburst/dysregulation?
Does your child use music to stay focused?
Do you use music to assist with completing difficult tasks?
Does your child frequently repeat song lyrics to communicate (make requests or comment)?
Does your child respond to sung instructions better than spoken ones?
Does your child naturally gravitate towards (become alerted by, attentive to, etc.) music or instruments?
Does your child pick up cognitive or social concepts learned from songs from TV shows or YouTube?
Does your child connect to others through musical experiences (e.g. familial singing)?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, music therapy could be very beneficial in supporting your child’s growth and development!

Signs Music Therapy May Not Be Right For Your Child

It isn’t completely uncommon for music therapy to not be a good fit for a child. Sometimes music is not for everyone, especially if they are easily overstimulated - clients with auditory sensitivities may find music overwhelming or uncomfortable. Some kids just aren’t interested in music at all, which is totally okay!

Sometimes there are clients who love music, but only on their iPads with a specific version of a song and may get upset when others sing or try to play a different version of their songs. This may or may not be an indicator of being a good fit for music therapy. For one, cognitive flexibility (i.e. things not going as expected or desired) could be a goal addressed through music and music therapy could be a bridge between their music preferences and realistic interactions with music in life. Alternatively, music could be serving a different function for them, like leisure, where its use wouldn’t be helpful in a therapeutic context towards their goals.

The best way to figure out if music therapy can be beneficial would be to schedule an evaluation. Music therapists are trained to recognize responses to music and work ways around frustration and dysregulation with music.

Music therapy is a beautiful, multi-sensory, play-based, fun way to address a plethora of diverse goals in almost any population. However music supports your child, we here at Cutting Edge want to help! Please reach out and inquire about starting treatment and scheduling a music therapy evaluation.