Music Therapy

[acmunchkin]

Hi! I have a two year old son, Kyle, with ACC. Kyle has very few words. He understands what you say to him, however, he doesn't talk back. I have read on another forum that Music Therapy worked wonders for speech and communication skills. I have found a music therapist, but she wants to research music therapy for ACC. Does anyone currently receive music therapy for your child? Do you notice a difference?

Thank you so much!!

April

[matthewsmom]

Hi April...a.k.a. (acmunchkin)...

Welcome to the Message Board.

I currently take my own son, who has complete ACC, to Music Therapy and I have taken him to music therapy in the past as well. I find (for my son) music to be a key to unlock the doorway to learning and for helping him learn how to express himself. This has proven to be true for my
son since he was very little. So…Yes, I do notice a huge difference. However, my son is non-verbal with only a handful of words.

Many parents comment that their child with ACC has a much higher receptive language (ability to understand what they hear) than their expressive language.

His main form of communication is through an augmentative communication device (DynaVox V) and through sign language. But, I continue to work with Matthew on verbal language as well.

It has been my experience that music therapy is different for each child (no matter what their diagnosis is) and you will set individual goals to help them learn (through music) what it is you hope that music and songs will help to accomplish.

Of course, when a child has ACC there is no guarantee that Music Therapy will produce language but there is also no harm in trying, I believe.

Personally, I am a huge fan of music and music therapy for helping my own child learn. Since he was a baby I have sung little silly made-up rhyming songs to help him learn body parts and other things. For whatever reason, music captures Matthew’s attention and helps him
relate the song to a body part or something else we are working on learning much more easily than spoken words.

Each person diagnosed with agenesis of the corpus callosum is so different in terms of HOW they are affected as I am sure you already know. Some kids with ACC talk, some kids do not talk. Some kids struggle to get their words out in a complete sentence or in the right order. Some kids struggle for the right words.

To my knowledge there is no specific research done yet on the effects of music therapy on people who have ACC.

With the diagnosis of ACC comes what so many parents refer to as the “wait and see” period as I am sure you know about. Waiting to see what my child would be able to do or not do was NOT easy and was something I struggled with for quite awhile. But our kids amaze us ALL THE TIME with the things they learn and it's so wonderful!!

I would definitely try music therapy with your child to see if music might possibly be the way to help unlock and encourage verbal skills.

I am a believer in giving a child with ACC several avenues and tools for helping to encourage language such as Sign Language and augmentative communication devices as well as continuing to work on verbal language.

I still sing songs today with Matthew to help him learn something new that we are working on and I think it’s amazing how quickly he is able to learn through a song.

I began homeschooling my son two years ago and I found a wonderful website called Listen and Learn. It is written by Rachel Rambach, a Board-Certified Music Therapist. Rachel is experienced working with children who have disabilities and specifically with kids who have Autism. She offers free full length songs on her website to sing with your child. I have found the website to be a big blessing and can’t say enough good things about her, her website and what she does to reach out and help so many kids around the world. You may want to take a look at the website and see if any of the songs there may help your son, Kyle.

www.listenlearnmusic.com/

If you click on the link above and scroll half way down the page you will see “labels” on the left-hand side. The songs are categorized into labels and if you click on a topic all of the songs under that specific topic will appear for you to listen to.

If you have any questions about our music therapy sessions I would be happy to share more about our own experience. Feel free to e-mail me also.

[e-mail]

If you decide to take Kyle to music therapy I would love to hear how he liked and responded to it and what you think about the sessions if you may wish to share.

Sandie Mom to 15 year old Matthew with complete ACC

[aracelibriesmom]

As soon as I read MUSIC THERAPY, I thought Matthew and Sandie.

April, Sandie and I have been corresponding via email for over a year now and she is SUCH GREAT help, she is amazing I knew she would reply to this post!

God Bless

[sharonlou]

my son andrew aged 11 has c ACC really loves music,his favorite thing is to be at his school disco!he completely loses himself in the music,dances his little heart out!.
It is a heart warming expereince to see that he is so happy.I never thought that thi is kind of like music therapy?
sharon

[matthewsmom]

Sharon,

It's so great that music touches your son, Andrew, in such a positive way
and that he is so passionate about music and dancing.

It could very well be a therapeutic musical experience for Andrew when he is able to express himself through music. Music has the ability to reach and touch people on so many different levels.

Music therapy is so individual and varied for each person that there is no way to really define what a typical music therapy session is because it is different for every person.

You can find more information about music therapy at the American Music Therapy Association, Inc.

www.musictherapy.org/

And additional, specific information can be found below:

www.musictherapy.org/about_ind.html

How to locate a music therapist in your area:

www.musictherapy.org/find.html

Sandie *Mom to 15 year old Matthew with complete ACC*