Music Therapy for Communication Disorders
The Dynamic Difference
Music and speech have significant overlap in both the brain and the body. Music Therapists study how the brain and body work to facilitate speech and use that knowledge to create engaging, original interventions to target a variety of communication needs. The best part is, music therapists work on these areas of communication through play and fun!
Types of Communication Disorders
As of 2013, the DSM 5 categorizes Communication Disorders as Language Disorder, Speech Sound Disorder, Childhood - Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering), Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder, and Unspecified Communication Disorder.
Language
Disorder
Persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across modalities due to deficits in comprehension or production.
Persistent difficulty with speech sound production that interferes with speech intelligibility or prevents verbal communication of messages.
Speech Sound
Disorder
Disturbances in the normal fluency and time patterning of speech which can cause anxiety about speaking.
Childhood-Onset
Fluency Disorder
Persistent difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication, not caused by impaired cognitive ability.
Social Communication Disorder
*As defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition
Treatment of Communication Disorders through
Music Therapy
In individual sessions, our therapists address communication areas of need such as articulation, fluency, intonation, initiation of speech, breathing, rate of speech, volume of speech, and more. Our therapists are able to use music to help both verbal and non-verbal individuals express themselves through active music making experiences. We are able to meet our clients in the music to help them reach their fullest potential!
In our Social Skills groups we use a variety of music therapy techniques and protocols to target social communication skills. Activities include active music making, purposeful music listening, and music-based discussions to work on both verbal and non-verbal skills such as identifying social cues, initiating social interactions, and other aspects of the pragmatic use of speech.
