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neurologic music therapy Tag

What is the Transformational Design Model?
Also known as the TDM, the Transformational Design Model is an assessment procedure that is used by many music therapists. There are a series of steps that the therapist goes through as they are assessing the client that ends in determining goals and interventions that are best for that client. It is a system that basically translates scientific methods into real-life functional use. It helps music therapists take non-musical therapeutic exercises and turn them into musical exercises, and then take those exercises and turn them into real-life every day skills that are functional.
Why is it important in the practice of music therapy?
-Helps plan goals that are relevant to the clients’ needs
-Helps make sure the goals and objectives are musical
-Helps generalize interventions into everyday functional application
-Allows music therapists to work with and share with other therapists
-Ensures patient centered instead of discipline centered programs
-Give clients quality service

Mary Jane

 

This week’s word is SCIENCE. When I think of the word “science”, I immediately think of when I was in 4th grade and our class would watch an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy every Friday. I hope you folks are ready for a throwback to the 90’s with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx4HdbTiksY

Brings back some good memories 🙂 Now for my rocky segue into how it relates to music therapy.

The music therapists at MTCCA are NMTs (Neurologic Music Therapists), which means that they are trained on the specific areas of the brain that react to certain things, like motor movement, language, and cognition. We use music therapy techniques that are specific to the certain areas of the brain. Bill Nye discusses memory at about 5:36 in the above video. In retirement homes and older adult settings, I like to use “name that tune” to stimulate long-term memory in clients. The melodies from their favorite songs are stored in the brain, and when they hear the familiar tune, the memory comes back.

Children with Autism often have delayed speech development due to the way their brain is wired. Speech is processed in specific parts of the brain, but the great thing about music is that it is processed in the ENTIRE brain. Think about it a pianist: when someone plays piano, they are accessing fine motor movement (moving the fingers), tracking (reading the music), auditory processing (listening to themselves play), and much more! In children with autism, the neural firing networks do not work the same as the typical functioning brain. By using melodic prompting and left-hand tapping, we can help a child with autism form a sentence. The brain is such an amazing thing! I will leave you with another Bill Nye gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMoRrIc-BPA

-Marjie

Music therapy is very diverse in its clinical applications.  During my internship at the Music Therapy Center of California I have worked in individual and group settings.  The individuals and groups also have a variety of diagnoses such as Autism, Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Apraxia, Dysarthria, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, Stroke, and Traumatic Brain Injury.  The diverse client load lends itself to diverse approaches of using music to meet non-musical goals.

During internship I have focused on learning and applying neurologic music therapy.  Neurologic music therapy is evidence-based and focuses on using techniques that can be generalized into life situations.  Instead of seeing music therapy as black and

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 white, neurologic music therapy allows for an addition of various “colors” or techniques to accomplish goals such as attention.  Within the goal for attention there are five different NMT techniques that breakdown what type of attention is being worked on: focused, selective, divided, alternating, and sustained.

– Hilary White