Pavethra Surendiran ( Group A)

Case 1

Improve on Annie’s speech impairment and communication difficulties.

Based on the case study of Annie, she appears to be a rather shy and withdrawn kid who has average academic abilities. The reason as to why she bites her classmates and is shy around them is probably because of her facial deformities and also because of her difficulty in communicating with peers. She would feel frustrated and irritated as she is not able to express her feelings as and when she wants to. From the findings, it has been stated that music does help to promote speech in children. Research has found that music techniques help to increase breathing and muscle control among children( Peters, 2000, Cohen, 1994), stimulate vocalization ( Staum, 1989), develop receptive and expressive language skills ( Miller, 1982) and improved articulation skills ( Zoller,1981). Humpal (1991) and Cassity ( 1992) demonstrated how preschoolers with speech-language disorders demonstrated social communication skills in music group activities with non-disabled peers. Herman (1985) mentioned how children point to music symbol pictures in order to contribute to group story songs and what feelings they want to express. ( Darrow, 1987 , Knapp, 1980) stated that signing and manual communication can be used to express song lyrics, and signs and singing to achieve a communication experience. Zoller ( 1991) stated that “ Musical activities stress nonverbal forms of communication and often surpass physical, cultural, intellectual and emotional limitations (p. 272).”

I refer to the case study of Allen who is a 4 year old boy who also had difficulties with speech and received speech language therapy at home. Allen faced problems with the comprehension of words and was not able to construct proper sentences. It was also noticed that Allen seldom interacted with his peers and did not engage in play-time with his friends at school. During the speech-language therapy assessment, Allen responded to “no” by stopping whatever he was doing and used consistent vocalizations for different family members. During the music therapy assessment, it was found that Allen usually walked towards a music source such as the cd player or a musical instrument. The most significant improvement was when he chose a picture of an instrument that he wanted and pressed a voice output device to say “hello” at appropriate times during the “hello” song. The results indicated that the social interaction increased at a 1:1 setting when music was used as reinforcement. Additionally, when the “ brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” book was sung to him, he responded by sitting and smiling at the therapist for about 5 minutes. It was noticed that Allen’s classroom activity engagement was increased when music was used in an activity. Hence, they decided to increase the amount of music that was being made use of in the classroom environment. There was an increased amount of spontaneous greetings, increased engagement in an activity. This improvement was seen as a positive one and the therapists moved on to big group activities where Allen faced a challenge of waiting for his turn. He was able to wait for an increased amount of time and responded to repeated lines in the music by using a voice output device from several songs. They conducted 10 treatment sessions and most teachers felt that the post treatment had the best results when compared to the rest. Going back to Annie’s case, I feel that music therapy would be a good way to get her to communicate her feelings to those around her. Also, since she also has social difficulties because of her facial deformities, music would be a good way for her to come out of her shy nature and socialize with her peers.

When I read this article, I personally was surprised with the result because I didn’t know that music actually helps speech impairment. After reading this article I realize that music is a good way to improve on children’s communication skills. As music is also a general favourite amongst the young ones, they would enjoy moving around and listening to music. Focusing on a favourite aspect of the child is important so that the child doesn’t get bored and lose interest. I feel that through this intervention, Annie would be able to increase her level of speech and engage in more activities with her friends without biting them and thus would encourage more of her peers approaching her and playing with her. Furthermore, music therapy can build on Annie’s counting skills as she would have to count the number of beats before pressing on the voice output device. Before integrating this activity in my classroom I would let children have a trial run and see the outcomes of it. I would encourage every child to be involved in this activity and I am sure most of them would want to be involved as it would be fun and engaging. I would read books that encourages musical activities and try to get all of them involved. However I would choose activities that range from simple to complex so that the children will feel motivated when they learn that they are able to do the activity. I would make it more interesting by providing reinforcements and prizes for those who show results and improvements so as to encourage them. I would also get them to come with an activity together so that Annie will also feel more involved along with her friends.

Reference:

Geist, K., McCarthy, J., Rodgers-Smith, A., & Porter, J. (2008, December). Integrating Music Therapy Services and Speech-Language Therapy Services for Children with Severe Communication Impairments: A Co-Treatment Model. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 35(4), 311-316. Retrieved September 10, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.