Music Therapy: Some Amazing Things It Has Done

Listening to sounds and words affects people in many ways. For example, if you hear a song from your past, you are immediately taken back there for a few minutes. Sounds can make us feel energized, tranquil, and happy. Therapists have found that music therapy can be used for many treatments, such as with dementia, Alzheimer's, autism, and Parkinson's Disease. Below are five amazing things music therapy has done to help people.

Music Therapy and Speech

Music therapy has helped many people regain their speech to some degree, which has helped bring them back to their life. Some of these people include:

60-Year-Old Man

A music therapist, Concetta Tomaino, used sound therapy with one of her patients. The man was 60 years old and lost his speech due to a stroke. He went through two years of intense speech therapy but he could still not speak. Concetta happened to hear him sing the song "Ol' Man River" but he could barely get the words out. She started singing the song with him a few times per week, and within two months he was singing the entire song, and his speech started to recover.

Henry

Henry was a man in a nursing home that was unresponsive to everyone. He would hardly talk, and if he did it was in short sentences. His nurse decided to try music therapy on him, as he used to love music when he was younger. She put a music player with headphones on his ears with his favorite music,and he immediately woke up and started singing the words. They took the music player off him, and he started singing other songs that he use to love from his own memory. He answered questions they asked him about the songs that he liked, and he was able to recall many memories.

Gabby Giffords

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head on January 8, 2011, during an assassination attempt in a supermarket in Tucson. The gunshot wound hit her on the left side of the brain, which is the side of the brain that is responsible for language, and left her with aphasia, which is the inability to express or understand speech. Along with speech therapy, Gabby Giffords also went through music therapy. Both together have helped her regain her speech.

These are just some of the stories of people that has been helped with music therapy. It is really amazing at what a few notes and words can do for a person in need. For more information, visit http://www.drmarkmontgomery.com.