Category Archives: 2010 Articles

Sensory and ASD

In the process of writing a grant application for a music therapy research project focused on ASD, I have been reading a lot of current research. Something that has been more prevalent in the research over the past two years is a consideration of sensory needs in ASD (see Kwakye et al., 2011 or Marco et al., 2011 to read about sensory and autism). Within this literature I found two articles investigating sensory supports for children with ASD.  Continue reading

MT for Children with CP: Study of Patterned Sensory Enhancement

One of the movements that can be worked on in the music therapy session is the sit-to-stand. This movement not only involves a large amount of muscular control, but also involves balance, making it difficult for persons who have motor impairments. This week we will look at a study of Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE) for the loaded sit-to-stand movement in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP).  Continue reading

Autism and Attention

Most of the research on children with autism is focused on their social skills and emotional awareness. Although these are major need areas for children with autism, these skills aren’t the only skills that come up as “needs” in the assessment. The ability to attend, follow-though with an exercise, and inhibit behaviors are also areas of need; however, there is less representation of these skills in the research literature. Today, MTRB will take a look at a review of literature on attention in autism and generalize this information into the music therapy clinic. Continue reading

MT for Arousal from Coma

Acquired brain injury may result in an altered level of consciousness including coma or a minimally conscious state. Different techniques have been attempted to help arouse a person in an altered state of consciousness. A new systematic review investigated different techniques represented in the research literature, including music therapy. Continue reading

MIT for Verbal Responses in Autism

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) has long been used to promote functional speech in persons who have had a cerebral vascular accident. Studies on MIT date back more than 30 years and many studies have looked at child populations including children with apraxia (Helfrich-Miller,  1994; LaGasse, 2004), children with Down syndrome (Carroll, 1996), and now children with autism. Continue reading