Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month! Did you know that there are many ways music therapy can benefit individuals with Down syndrome? Let’s talk about them.
Cognitive:
People with Down Syndrome may have varying levels of learning disabilities which vary from person to person. In music therapy, we can work on whatever the individual’s needs are. Whether that is working on memory and attention skills by playing and learning instruments, or working on academic skills like color identification, music therapists are equipped to address all of these areas! This can look like using songs as a way to learn and memorize information, or using different aspects of music to work on the different areas of attention and executive functioning skills.
To wrap up, I’d like to share a success story! Client “L”, who has Down syndrome, has been receiving services from Perfect Harmony Health for a long time now. In music therapy she works on many different things, but the main goals she has are speech goals, specifically articulation, rate of speech, and breath support. Over time, through vocal exercises, L has greatly improved in these areas. Vocal exercises with L might include, but are not limited to, singing “Mama made me mash my m&ms” to focus on rate of speech, breathing exercises to improve her breath support, or singing sounds such as “loo lee loo lee loo” to work on consonant and vowel articulation. L then practices combining all of these skills by singing songs. L has grown in confidence and ability, to the point where she has performed at events such as Amp It Up and had great success!
Check out her performance on YouTube!
I hope this brief overview of music therapy with Down syndrome has shown you some of the many areas music therapy can address with these individuals. Perfect Harmony Health has many clients with Down syndrome, in addition to partnering with and providing services at Gigi’s Playhouse in Atlanta, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a variety of free services to individuals with Down syndrome. This year for Down Syndrome Awareness Month let’s celebrate our friends with Down syndrome! We can advocate for high quality care for them, for acceptance in our community, and for more opportunities for our friends to show how incredible they are within our community!
Resources:
Gigi’s Playhouse
National Down Syndrome Society
(800) 221-4602, www.ndss.org
(music therapy is listed under “Down’s Syndrome and the Arts”) http://www.ndss.org/content.cfmfuseaction=InfoRes.SchEduarticle&article=719
American Music Therapy Association (AMTA)
Research:
Hoskins, C. (1988). Use of music to increase verbal response and improve expressive language abilities of preschool language delayed children. Journal of Music Therapy, 25(2), 73-84.
Wallace, W.T. 1994. Memory for music: effect of melody on recall of text. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 20, 1471-85.