Music Therapy for Children with Autism: Essay Example

In a setting with someone with autism spectrum disorder, music therapists make use of music as an educational tool to encourage learning. One of the purposes of music therapy for someone with autism is to provide the student with an initial assistance using melodious and rhythmic strategies, followed by fading of musical cues to assist in simplification and transfer to other learning environments. Music therapy has been proven to decrease symptoms of children with autism, and could even facilitate motivation and social interaction. Even autistic children, who rarely or never speak, can respond to music; sometimes they may even sing along. Music therapy provides a tool that can link the gap between a non-communicative child and one who can begin speaking in words and phrases. It also supports an overall ability of preferred music to enhance mood, attention, and social interaction to optimize the student’s ability to learn and interact. Music should be used with children who have Autism because it makes connections between speech and singing, rhythm and motor behavior, memory for song and academic material. According to the American Cancer Society, music therapy is “the use of music by health care professionals to promote healing and enhance quality of life for their patients,” (“American Cancer Society” par. 1). It can be used to give assurance of emotional expression and promote social interaction. A few aspects of music therapy are making music, listening to music, and writing and/or talking about songs and lyrics. It also engages in imagery and learning through music. It can be conducted in a variety of places and the person can benefit from its soothing effects anywhere and the client does not need to have any musical talent to benefit from music therapy.
Music has been used in medicine for thousands of years. Native Americans have used singing and chanting as part of their healing rituals for over a thousand years. The more recognized approach to music