20/10/2019
Music Therapy and Children with Cerebral Palsy.
Music therapy is the use of music by listening or playing, in a therapeutic way, to modify the cerebral process capturing the attention of the patient.
Music and pediatric neurology
Concerning children, music combined to movement improves spatial relations and visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination and fine ( Spatial relations refer to how objects are located in space in relation to a reference object). and visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination and fine motor habilities.
Hearing rhythmic stimulation improves walk length, speed, gait symmetry, without increasing the pace. It’s very efficient compared with traditional walk therapies. Ankle and wrist bands with jingles can be a nice way to encourage moving by playing music in the same time.
Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE) is a technic making use of every music components such as tempo or mode. It structures motor patterns in space and time, and facilitates motor performances. An exercise is realized faster and with more motivation in the PSE group than in the control one. Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) has significantly improve during more than 3 months after PSE session. Nethertheless, PSE didn’t demonstrate significant improvement of daily routines and activities, strength nor gait[9].
Music therapy session significantly reduces heart rate and blood pressure of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP)[14]. Listening to several music tracks focusing on rhythmic and melodic aspects of the pieces stimulates selective and long term attention. Short extracts allow us to maintain better attention. Music therapy programs significantly improve children motivation and social behavior. We can notice a particular improvement of communication, cooperation and other children awareness. To sum up, music therapy causes cerebral modifications in attention and emotional responses areas, with significantly effects on communication and social interactions.