Controversy About
Therapeutic Listening
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| Child using therapeutic listening |
New technology is transforming the speech world. Children
with special needs are starting to receive help from technology more and more. One
of these new treatments is called therapeutic listening. Therapeutic listening involves
the client wearing headphones to listen to certain music. This music is
designed to help the client focus. Therapeutic listening is often used for
children with special needs by their therapists (often occupational).The music works by cancelling out any other distracting
noises and often help to regulate the user. The organized sound patterns impact levels of the nervous system. This helps meets many clients’ needs that are easily thrown off by
outside noises. The listening is started with twenty half-hour listens (twice daily) for ten days. There is some controversy on therapeutic listening however.
The controversy in the field is that some specialists say that there is limited scientific evidence that proves therapeutic listening is effective. This makes them hesitant to use the therapy.
Others say therapeutic listening noticeably improves the attention and even irritability of users. These professionals try to use the therapy when ever the client seems to be a contender.
Works Cited
Frick, Sheila M. "A Brief Introduction To Therapeutic Listening." N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
Kurtz, Lisa A. Understanding Controversial Therapies for Children With Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Other Learning Disabilities: A Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2008. Print.
I can see this controversy going both ways. Music has always helped me focus on studying or relaxed me when going to sleep. However, I have friends that need it to be completely quiet for them to focus or sleep at all. I think a lot of this depends on the individual. So therapeutic learning can be effective for some but ineffective for others, making both sides of the controversy correct. Would you agree?
ReplyDeleteI see why this is controversial but I think it is up to the patient or patient's parents to determine effectiveness. It's personal preference what we use to focus. There are also scientific experiments that talk about learned responses and the effectiveness of doing things like this at a young age. We know that it is easier to learn things like languages, and skills like snowboarding at a young age when our brains are like sponges opposed to learning it in our teens and twenties. I would have to disagree with those who say there isn't evidence to back this up also. We can go back to early experiments done by Freud who covered the basics of conditioned responses. Just because listening to music doesn't immediately help a patient does not mean they can't be conditioned to focus to the music. An experiment that involved dogs and premium streaks can prove this. A light was turned off in a room full of dogs everyday and then a juicy steak was brought out and when the dog smelled it their mouth would water. After a while the steaks were not brought out any longer and the learned response from the dogs left them salivating. This is a basic experiment but something that can be related to the kids. Ten days may not be long enough to learn this but give it a couple months and the kids may be set for all of grade school! And that is my perspective on the matter!
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