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Home › Articles › Special Needs › Special Treatments

Special Treatments

Complementary Therapies Make a Difference for Many Children

By Kim Byrum Skinner

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A Wittenberg and Southern Methodist University graduate, Hough describes music therapy as a neurological procedure culled from 200 years of outcome-based, scientific research.

"There's overwhelming scientific evidence now, for example, that if you use music during surgery, patients need 50 percent less anesthesia," she says. "Stroke patients who are learning to walk again benefit from rhythmic auditory training. We've found that if you combine this rhythmic beat with their physical therapy, there's a 40 percent increase in their walking ability. The beat helps retrain the part of the brain that had the stroke, that internal rhythm needed to walk."

Like jogging, music triggers physiological, chemical, neurological and hormonal changes. Parkinson's patients improve swallowing and articulation through singing, chanting and vocalization. Asthmatics clear their lungs by blowing into instruments.

"The biggest thing we've had to overcome with our profession is that, while everyone knows music is entertainment, they don't realize it's also therapeutic and absolutely essential for health," Hough says.

The arts are equally effective as diagnostic tools. "Kids are not made to sit in the therapy room and say, 'You know, I feel depressed today,'" Nicolosi says. "But you might ask them to bring in their music. I'm a chronic pain specialist, and I can tell you, too, that there's a high correlation between kids drawing their pain and an accurate diagnosis. Art also helps kids manage their pain. We can use pictures of it and visualize it being different. If pain is a red knife stabbing into their head, perhaps we change that knife to a different color, and turn it into a sponge."

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