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Medical Benefits of Art and Music Therapy for Kids and Teens With Special Needs

by Stanley Clark

Find the Right Therapeutic Resources to help your child across the United States now

Most of us consider music and art as entertainment or a way for self-expression. But they go beyond diversion and fun.


Some studies noted music's ability to lower blood pressure and ease heart rate. It was found that music can induce relaxation in patients who experience dental and surgical anxiety and stress(1).

Moreover, the therapeutic value of music encompasses treatments and learning strategies for children with special needs. Parents support their kids' aesthetic endeavors and self-development by getting them engaged in dramatic arts courses, music lessons, and other creative outlets.

These activities get special needs children acquainted with the real world while equipping them emotionally, physically, and mentally.

Beneficial Effects of Art and Music Therapy

There have been purported advantages of art and music therapy, associating them with the emotional and mental development of children with special needs.

Music and art therapies target these kids' minds, bodies, and emotions, resulting in their overall personal growth and development.

Art Therapy

Depending on your children's interests, they can explore different forms of art, such as performative arts, visual arts, graphic arts, literature, and decorative arts.

These kinds of art therapy can benefit your child's mental function, emotional health, and physical health.

  • Effects on Mental Function
Painting, coloring, or drawing stimulates creativity among children with special needs. They are able to exercise their perceptive and cognitive skills, thus increasing their brain activity.

Other forms of art, like performance art (singing, dancing, and dramatic arts), may facilitate personal growth and social skills among these kids. This experience may encourage interaction and help them gain self-awareness.

  • Effects on Emotional Health

NVisual arts can help boost an individual’s emotional health by encouraging more positive feelings. This activity can be a coping tool for those with special needs who may find it hard to express their emotions.

Art activities are often incorporated in some interactive learning programs for those with special needs to reduce anxiety and stress during their study time. Creating art may serve as a creative meditation and calming activity for these children. It may promote constructive sensibilities and identity.

  • Effects on Physical Health

Performance and dramatic arts encourage children to move. Thus, immersing them in these kinds of activities may help improve their body coordination and motor skills.

This type of art also involves multiple senses and may help children be more aware of their physical presence and space.

Music Therapy Exposing your children to music can stimulate their senses and may foster their developmental skills.

Whether you play upbeat or mellow songs, children with special needs have been said to have positive responses while listening to music. It can help them get excited and energize or soothe and alleviate emotional and mental stress.

  • Effects on Mental Function
Music may promote language development and instill cognitive concepts in individuals with special needs. By simply learning the lyrics to a song, their memory, focus, and concentration may improve.

  • Effects on Emotional Health

Various emotions are elicited through music. It can serve as an outlet for emotional expression, which may help children with special needs confront feelings creatively.

Music can also help these children be understood by others, thus, improving their social relationships.

  • Effects on Physical Health

Since music induces relaxation, it can also be a device to improve physiological developments for children with special needs.

Stress and anxiety may tend to be higher in individuals with special needs(2). Symptoms include racing heartbeat, headache, and muscle tension(3).

Music may help in easing these physical manifestations of stress(4). Improved breathing, relaxed muscles, lowered blood pressure and reduced heart rate are some of music's significant effects (5).

References

  1. Harvard Health Publishing (June 2018), Tuning in: How music may affect your heart, retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tuning-in-how-music-may-affect-your-heart
  2. McConnell, D., Savage, A. Stress and Resilience Among Families Caring for Children with Intellectual Disability: Expanding the Research Agenda. Curr Dev Disord Rep 2, 100–109 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-015-0040-z
  3. Boston Children's Hospital, (n.d.), Anxiety disorders Symptoms & Causes, retrieved from https://www.childrenshospital.org/conditions-and-treatments/conditions/a/anxiety-disorders/symptoms-and-causes
  4. Harvard Health Publishing, (July 2011), Music and Health, retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health
  5. Harvard Health Publishing, (June 2018), Tuning in: How music may affect your heart, retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tuning-in-how-music-may-affect-your-heart
Stanley Clark is a community development volunteer and writer. He had worked on several commercials, events, and campaigns before writing full-time in the area of natural health and wellness. He has a particular interest in reviewing CBD brands for their safety and legitimacy with CBDClinicals.com. Interested in breaking the taboo about cannabis, Stanley believes in CBD's potential for helping people and communities with their health and wellness concerns.



Disclaimer: Internet Special Education Resources (ISER) provides this information in an effort to help parents find local special education professionals and resources. ISER does not recommend or endorse any particular special education referral source, special educational methodological bias, type of special education professional, or specific special education professional.