How music benefits the lives, both intellectually and socially, of mentally retarded people - Research Paper Example

? How music benefits the lives, both intellectually and socially, of mentally retarded people Introduction Music is a medium that can meet people’ s needs for achievement, belonging, significance freedom and fun, since it allows expression of self and is a means of finding meaningful and enjoyable communication with others. The power of music has been recognized for a long time as a means of promoting health and well-being; therefore, music therapy to mentally retarded people is a means of harnessing the power of music for effective and positive change to individuals. Music actively engages people in their development and behavioural change; hence, for mentally retarded people music permits them to transmit musical and non-musical skills to other facets of life, which brings them from isolation into active participation in the world. The act of making music to mentally retarded people and reacting to musical stimuli makes these individuals able to experience immediate psychological and physiological awareness in various levels. The concrete reality of being able to sense auditorialy, tactfully, visually and emotionally brings these persons into the present, which brings immediate results. From mental retardation, these individuals experience the world around them on a subliminal or unconscious level; nevertheless, through music mentally retarded people can experience life at the conscious level, which opens lines of communication because it awakens, heighten and expand their awareness. Music has many positive changes on different levels to mentally retarded people since it has the unique properties of facilitating creative expression within individuals who have nonverbal or face difficulties in communication skills. Moreover, music provides an opportunity for experiences that open the way leading to motivation in learning in all domains of functioning; as well, music creates opportunities for positive and pleasurable social experiences, which are unavailable to mentally retarded people. In addition, music develops understanding of self, others and the surrounding which improves the working of mentally retarded people at all levels and improves their well-being as well as fostering their independent living (Barksdale, 2003). There are various fundamental reasons to the effectiveness of using music as a curative agent, which include music being a cross-cultural mode of expression with its nonverbal nature making it a universal means of communication. Music sound stimulus is unique in its power of penetrating the mind and the body regardless of an individual’s level of intelligence or condition; therefore, music stimulates senses, evokes feelings and emotions, elicits both mental and physiological responses and energizes the mind and body. Music’s intrinsic structure and qualities has the potential for self-organization in mentally retarded individuals since it influences musical and non-musical behaviour hence it facilitates learning and acquisition of skills. Music is an extremely efficient and aesthetic modality which applies to all people including mentally retarded people owing to its interdisciplinary nature. Music improves motor skill, cognitive skills, affective states and adjustment as well as social skills; hence, music’s interdisciplinary aspects supplement and reinforce therapies for mentally retarded individuals (Barksdale, 2003). Music has been successful as a therapeutic intervention for individuals with mental and physical disorders; hence, music has always been recommended combined with treatment policy in order to supplement medical treatment. Music therapy theory suggest music engages the mind, bringing awareness of self and others leading to positive change and as choice theory suggest, thoughts and feelings change in accordance with actions that satisfy the individuals involved, which music invokes (Barksdale, 2003). Musial activities are useful for motion, also motivate conscious reaction, and complete the power of sensory motivation; however, music therapy remains controversial although it is an effective for of rehabilitation for mentally handicapped individuals. Music is useful in restoring, maintaining and improving emotional, physiological, physical and spiritual health and well-being; for instance, music improves the ability to express positive emotions and moods as elicits sense of vitality on individuals with mental retardation. Since music is organised reality, a real event occurs in minds of mentally retarded people and demands moments when an individual is attentive; thus, music provides an expressive tool that boosts valuable feelings. Music has a sedative effect on individuals’ lives thus listening to music amplifies the auditory memory in mentally retarded people; moreover, listening to music creates a wide range of feelings impossible to achieve through playing instruments, which have their limitation. Music is a cost-effective way that helps build positive experiences and self-confidence because some individuals with mental retardation have considerable artistic skills. Through music, mentally retarded individuals produce noticeable improvements in their quality of life as interpersonal behaviour; since individuals gradually understand effective social interactions together with appropriate social behaviour. In the past music has been used as a healing force that alleviated stress and illnesses in an evolving relationship between client and therapists in order to support and encourage mental, physical, social and emotional well-being. Through music, therapists are able to contact and establish a relationship with a mentally retarded individual, hence helping therapists observe how the client uses the music and how problems and difficulties get in the way of interactive communication. In intellectual disability, music has been utilised as a tool for maintaining and developing areas like physical skills, social skills and improving communication. Music has been useful in children by exploiting the calming effects of music and encouraging speech and language development; thus, music is beneficial in the development of social skills in children with intellectual disability. Music offers a means of social interaction, which many individuals find rewarding and embed within the culture, making it easy to access. Mentally retarded individuals often find it difficulty meeting the demands of the society; hence, they largely depend on supportive services of families and community agencies. In mental retardation, adaptive behaviour equates to mental ability, with adaptive behaviour being the effective with which a person meets the standards of maturation, personal independence, learning and social responsibility expected in the individual’s age. For instance, an adult with normal intelligence consciously or unconsciously strives to acquire behaviour valued by the society within which the individual lives. Competence for such an individual is judged by adaptation; hence the individual is considered a contributing member in the social group (Benchot, 1984). Recent progress in brain study enable enhancement and understanding of the way lively commitment to music contributes to development. Music has for long period been considered to offer successful experiences for children that help them expand their listening abilities in mainstream schools as well as students with learning problems. Listening to music helps individuals process enormous amount of information rapidly even without conscious awareness. Speech and music share processing systems; hence, musical experience which enhances processing impacts on the perception of language which in return affect reading thus affecting intellectual capability. Music sharpens brain’s encoding of sound leading to enhanced performance; moreover, playing musical instrument triggers changes in brain. Music therapists believe music can meet the needs and develop potential of a population with intellectual disability ranging from mild to severe intellectual disability. While active music therapy techniques involve people in music making, receptive music therapy involves listening to music; however, music therapists in mental retardation do not develop music or musical skills but rather use the relations developed through music with the intention of promoting health. Music theoretical approach of therapy influences how a therapist comprehends the clients’ needs, which determines the basis of therapeutic relationship methods used and goals of the therapy. Therapists use musical experiences to develop relations that promote health through resolving a person’s emotional, physical and psychological difficulties. Moreover, therapists develop musical relations by conditioning the use of music to promote health using music as a stimulus to eliminate or reduce inappropriate behaviours that tend to be unhealthy or unwanted aspects of a person; thus, music in mentally retarded people increase positive and appropriate behaviour (Peters, 2000). Various authors have published reviews on music and intellectual disability, which give full account of the different ways both active and receptive music therapy help the population having intellectual disability. Music can address social needs by developing imitation, articulation and expressive language skills by developing interactions with intellectually disabled as well as non-intellectually disabled peers and by encouraging cooperation and peer acceptance. Music allows individuals with mental disability to use devices and sounds as means of representing and externalising feelings like anger, sadness and melancholy. Moreover, music has other emotional and psychological benefits like building self-esteem, increasing the sense of accomplishment and decreasing agitation. In other cases, active music therapy achieves physical goal by promoting body and spatial awareness, encouraging movement and developing limb extension and muscular co-ordination. As well, music has cognitive objectives like increasing concentration and motivation, improving retention, perpetual ability and memory skills. Music to music therapists who have interest in people with mental disability functions as a therapeutic tool in restoring, maintaining as well as improving psychological, mental and psychological health together with rehabilitation, and maintenance of behavioural, developmental and social skills. Music therapy is useful in a wide range of populations ranging from people in hospital, individuals with psychiatric disorders, older people, and people with neurological problems as well as individuals with intellectual disability. Music is essential since it contributes to education in students with special needs; hence, music therapists consider music therapy to be a well-established profession like occupational and physical therapy. Thus, music therapy in education programs for students with severe disabilities like mental retardation are widespread of the various benefits associated with the use of music in such individuals (Stephenson, 2006). Music therapy is increasing becoming associated with education for special people, especially education of students with severe disabilities and is considered a desirable component of education by parents of mentally retarded students. For instance, in US music is recognised in educational settings as a related service that assists students with special education needs. Music therapy for students with mental retardation serves several goals like fulfilling the student’s basic needs which involves creating a trustworthy and responsive environment. As well, music develops a person’s sense of self since the person builds relations with musical instruments, music and the therapist. Moreover, through music, mentally retarded individuals are able to establish interpersonal relations, in addition music is essential in the development of certain skills like eye contact, reaching or using switch within musical activities. Music also is crucial in dispelling pathological behaviour as well as developing consciousness and compassion to the beauty of music (Stephenson, 2006). Music therapists working with students with severe disabilities focus on music for recreation, reinforcing the desired behaviour as a way of developing other skills and knowledge as well as a way of healing. Music is often used with people having severe disabilities since music emphasises the development of communication and relations. Thus, through music mentally retarded individuals can achieve academic goals since it teaches gross and fine motor skills useful in developing social interactions skills and a motivator of other tasks. It is has been reported that music therapists in US assessed motor, communication skills, social skills and cognitive skills hence music therapy crosses these areas making it strong element in special education. Music therapists use music to promote non-music activities related to music, which encourages such an individual to vocalise or work on listening and comprehension. Music provides a level of sensory stimulation since it includes movement activities that promote body and fine motor skills through formal movement in response to music (Stephenson, 2006). Group musical therapy session in special education setting commences with a greeting song before moving to activities like singing, playing instruments and moving in response to music in a directed or spontaneous way. Such activities reinforce therapy sessions; hence, music is crucial in education since the relation between music therapist and a mentally retarded individual is an essential element, which is achieved through music. Music in pre-composed and improvised songs as well as improvised accompaniments have been shown to relate to response in mentally retarded children, moreover, through music instrument interactions produce synchronous interactions in such individuals. The diversity of music makes music therapist use its powers in intellectually disabled children because it has the benefits of developing communication, social skills as well as purposeful movement. Duffy and Fuller (2000) exploited efficiency of music therapy program for improving social abilities in children with reasonable intellectual disability. In their undertaking, they devised two programs to teach same skills, with one recording music for musical activities and the other substituting activities for musical activities. Moreover, they trained staff on the implementation of the programs with groups of children in four centres and eventually they assessed social skills before and after the program. Results of the study indicated that both groups had enhanced their social skills, though music therapy was not more beneficial, thus, Music is beneficial in development of social skills. For students with multiple disabilities, the area of possible benefits of music lies in the area of communications skills, which are essential in social development of mentally retarded students. Communications skills have been a particular focus for music therapists with many studies in this area claiming improvements in the area, owing to capabilities of music. Many music therapists appreciate the significance of developing intentional and pre-symbolic communication for students having severe disabilities and the way it can be elicited in interaction with a responsive partner. It is clear that music therapists emphasise on building relations through music because they are aware of the early communication skills, especially non-verbal communication and ways in which children having communication delays or disorders become encouraged to communicate within musical activities. In such therapies, therapists describe use of improvisations responsive to children in order to promote eye contact, sharing, joint attention as well as other early communication skills necessary for mentally retarded children (Hooper, Wigram, Carson and Lindsay, 2011). Music interacts with children to mirror the responsive interactions between children and parents hence music supports development of communication in mentally retarded children. Though music therapists provide a range of communication opportunities and encourage children to be responsive to these opportunities, they face difficulties with children who are not alert and appear unmotivated. The fruitful approach to music therapy as an intervention in schools for students having severe disabilities focuses on music in the context for teaching and practising communication skills. In the absence of research base and guidelines of practice, music therapists and educators carefully assess prevailing communication skills and conditions where they are elicited and reinforced. Special educators traditionally embed teaching of functional skills in motivating activities and routines as well as the use of musical activities to exploit their motivating and reinforcing effects (Stephenson, 2006). In conclusion, music therapists consider all individuals regardless of age to have the capacity for musical expression and appreciation but not necessarily at a professional level. Thus, human development prepares everybody to be a music-maker and music lover at least at the basic level, therefore, this normal level includes the potential of learning and reacting to elements of music. In clinical situations, music therapists encounter clients with mental impairments, which interfere with the basic music potentials; hence, they carefully adapt music therapy experience to capabilities of clients in order to avoid anything that can result in harm or pain to the mentally retarded individuals. Hence, experiences of listening to music and making music are useful to clients who need to be activated intellectually and socially, which is the kind of response music listening elicits. Hence, various music therapies and experiences can help individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities because music improves many areas including communication skills, academic or vocational skills, social and emotional skills. References Barksdale, A. L. (2003). Music therapy and leisure for persons with disabilities. New York: Sagamore Publishing. Benchot, R. (1984). The Mentally Retarded Adult: A Nursing Perspective. Journal Of Community Health Nursing, 1(4), 235. Duffy, B., & Fuller, R. (2000). Role of music therapy in social skills development in children with moderate intellectual disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 13, 77–89. Hooper, J., Wigram, T., Carson, D., & Lindsay, B. (2011). The practical implication of comparing how adults with and without intellectual disability respond to music. British Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 39(1), 22-28. Peters, J. S. (2000). Music therapy: An introduction. Springfield, Ill: C.C. Thomas. Stephenson, J. (2006). Music therapy and the education of students with severe disabilities. Education and training in developmental disabilities, 41(3), 290. Read More