Music Therapy & Speech: A Perfect Match

At A Suite Sound, we offer most of our services in our beautiful facility at Emerald City Therapies, where speech therapy is also carried out! Music and Speech therapists may collaborate and/or see the same clients to work on their respective goals (as we have been fortunate to do!). Because we address these goals with our clients so frequently, we decided it was time to write about this collaborative effort in a way that showcases just how music can be used to work on speech goals. 

Singing and the Brain

First of all, singing is such a profound way to address speech goals in music therapy. The functions of speech are located primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, as well as the cerebellum (Cafasso, 2019). Music is processed in many parts of the brain, and can help access the primary speech areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) while also sharing areas on the right side of the brain that are used for singing (Harmony Music Therapy, 2018).    In addition, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), here are five similarities between music and language: 

1. Both have pitch, timbre, rhythm, and durational features
2. Spontaneous speech and spontaneous singing typically develop within infants at approximately the same time
3. Music and language have auditory, vocal, and visual uses (both use written systems) and are built on structure and rules
4. Distinct forms of music and language exist and vary across cultures
5. Music and Language are universal and specific to humans

(See Smith, 2011). According to Melanie Reynolds, Speech Language Pathologist and founder of Emerald City Therapies, "Speech language pathologists love using music in therapy. Like language, music is a universal, organized system. It creates engaging opportunities for children to expand vocabulary, improve sentence structure, support word retention and strengthen problem solving skills." This makes for a beautiful pairing of music and speech. If you’ve read our most recent blog post, “5 Things for Nursing Home Directors to Know About Music Therapy,” then you may remember the significance of music in memory care– that clients we’ve seen were able to participate musically to express themselves and communicate– even though they were limited with ability to verbally communicate.  While still not widely known in some areas, music therapy quietly operates with innovation within specific guidelines of making musical interventions specific, observable, and measurable.  Here are some broad strokes for using music to address speech goals:

• Playing a harmonica to work on breath control
• Playing a kazoo to increase vocalization
• Playing a gathering drum to increase social awareness
• Placing target words at strategic parts of songs and singing them in a way that primes the child’s brain to pronounce the word (all above listed from Harmony Music Therapy blog)
• Using books as both a visual tool and a motivator to pronounce certain words or speech sounds

Examples of Speech-Centered Goals:

Here are a few brief snapshots of music therapy interventions that support speech goals.

• Practicing Greetings

By singing a routine hello and goodbye song in music therapy sessions, clients can work on basic speech phrases, such as “hi/hello” and “bye/goodbye.”

• Answering Basics

Being able to communicate direct answers and express needs/desires allows the client to have autonomy. Therapists can use music to help teach, motivate, and prompt the client to answer yes/no questions either verbally, using an AAC device, or pointing to visuals.

• Personal Facts

It is also crucial to teach personal facts, as that knowledge is needed in emergent situations. This could include birthday, phone number, home address, etc. Music is a helpful tool for memory (just think - we all remember the alphabet because of the ABC song!) and can help teach important information. Therefore, music therapists often “piggyback” traditional songs such as “B-I-N-G-O” to aid in teaching these skills.

• Communicating Feelings

This is an important one for everyone of all ages and abilities. Being able to express your feelings can be difficult, but music therapists can use music to make this concept more approachable and manageable. Musical phrases can be taught alongside gestalt phrases such as, “I’m feeling frustrated,” or “I am overwhelmed.” Furthermore, music therapists can then discuss coping strategies such as through lyric singing or writing, or by having clients draw to music. 

• Practicing Conversing

For some, it may be daunting to work on conversational skills– or any social situations in general. Making it fun with music and a back-and-forth type of call and response with a musical phrase or song can increase participation. 

• Social Skills

Identifying the feelings of others and problem solving a social scenario are two other common uses of music– such as through singing– to work on cognitive, emotional, but also language skills.    As you can see, there is a huge variety to what the music therapist can do with the client to work on their speech goals, but to get even more specific, some written objectives in which music therapy may implement may look something like this:

Objective 1A. Client will reciprocate a concrete question and ask a related question in 60% of given opportunities with no more than 2 prompts per trial. 

Objective 1B. Given a variety of materials, pictures, and prompts, client will participate in

conversational turn-taking with the therapist for 5 out of 5 trials across 3 data collections.

Objective 1C. Client will independently produce a gestalt or phrase to identify

her emotions within child-led play activities, at least 1x during 2 out of 3 charted therapy

sessions.

Objective 1D. Client will answer personally salient questions (asked in a variety

of ways [her name, her birthday, her parents’ names) at 80% accuracy when given

minimal cues in order to improve ability to answer during emergent situations.

 It is so cool to learn about the connections between music and speech, and therefore how music therapy can assist in speech therapy goals! Let us know what you like to do with your clients when you address speech and language goals!Speech therapists, what do you think? In what ways do you like to collaborate with music therapists? Leave us a comment below :)  References: Cafasso, Jacquelyn (2019, May 17). What part of the brain controls speech? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/what-part-of-the-brain-controls-speech Harmony Music Therapy. (2018, October 16). The Power of collaboration: Speech and music therapy. Harmony Music Therapy.https://harmonymusictherapy.com/power-of-collaboration-speech-and-music-therapy/ See Smith, Rachael. (2011, October 4). Speech-Language Therapy and Music Therapy Collaboration: The Dos, the Don’ts, and the “Why Nots?”. ASHAWire. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/speech-language-therapy-and-music-therapy-collaboration-the-dos-the-donts-and-the-why-nots/full/