Emotional Effects of Music Therapy on Children with Special Needs

Abstract

The responses to music are both physiological and emotional, changing the life of a child with special needs. It creates new diverse feelings. The current study explains music therapy‟s contributions to modeling the emotional behavior of children with special needs by encouraging the expression of feelings and by solving relational issues. The paper is structured on two parts. First part highlights literature concerning the backgrounds, the aims and the effect of music therapy on children with special needs. The second part focuses on the practical area of music therapy bringing up study cases, participants to the music therapy act, children exposed to different types of music that involve active (vocal and rhythmical singing and improvisation) and receptive (music audition) participation. Children are encouraged to express their feelings through art as a part of the evaluation proving that, as predicted, musical experience leads to a positive increase in the children‟s skills and emotional responses and also develop their learning and thinking abilities.