Child-Centered Music Therapy
Using Music to Change the Lives of Children with Special Needs

By Abigail N. Yeh, MT-BC

As five-year-old Jonathan walks into the room, the piano announces his entrance with mysterious, slow paced music. Jonathan slowly looks around until he finds his favorite instruments, the drum and cymbal. When he picks up the mallets, the piano music suddenly transforms into an upbeat march. Jonathan smiles and beats the drum in strong, loud strokes with both hands, matching the tempo of the music. The woman at the piano sings, "Hello Jonathan ... " The music pauses for a moment, and Jonathan sings back, "Hello!"

There is more than simple fun happening in this music therapy session. Jonathan seldom says, "Hello." In fact, he rarely smiles in response to anything that is happening, unless he is in the music room. Jonathan is diagnosed with Autism, and rarely interacts with the world around him. Yet now, through music therapy, he is experiencing the world around him in a new way.

Jonathan is participating in Child-Centered Music Therapy, an improvisational approach to music therapy designed specifically for children and adolescents with special needs. In this approach, the therapist finds the music that each child relates and responds to, based on his/her behaviors and needs, and meets the child through this music. If a child runs into the room screaming, the music therapist might play fast, upbeat music that makes the screaming communicative. If a child slowly crawls into the room, the therapist may play a lullaby. Rather than using sing-along style music, therapists utilize spontaneous, improvised music to make the music interactive. Sessions often resemble a musical conversation between therapist and client; the child makes music with the therapist!

Through the music, therapists work toward non-musical goals -- using the music as a tool for positive change. The American Medical Association notes: "Nonverbal communication between an autistic child playing the drums and a therapist on the piano can serve to bring an autistic child out of isolation."

Potential Goals in Child-Centered Music Therapy:

• Improve Receptive / Expressive Language
• Increase Fine and Gross Motor Control
• Increase Attention Span
• Expand Memory and Cognition Skills
• Improve Social Interaction
• Improve Relatedness with the Outside World
• Improve Frustration Tolerance and Impulse Control
• Develop Self-Esteem, Self-Expression, Mood, Self-Confidence

For children like Jonathan, music therapy can mean the difference between isolation and interaction. While Jonathan has always sung on his own, his mother reports that Jonathan now sings with her. Although he rarely used both hands for tasks, he now beats a drum with both arms together, and is beginning to play at home with his whole body as well. Jonathan's speech and language development is improving, his relatedness with the outside world is increasing, and he is developing better body awareness. Perhaps most important to his parents is the knowledge that their son finds joy and connection in his weekly music therapy sessions. Jonathan doesn't learn how to play Mozart in music therapy -- he learns how to experience himself in a new way, playing Jonathan's music.

Abigail Yeh is a board-certified music therapist in Gainesville, specializing in work with children and adolescents with special needs. For more information, visit her website: www.GainesvilleMusicTherapy.com, or call 376-6012.