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Special Treatments

Complementary Therapies Make a Difference for Many Children

By Kim Byrum Skinner

"A lot of it is being outside themselves and doing a lot of self-movement," Smith says. "I've had people remark, 'Oh, you mean you got him up off the couch?' I say, 'Not only is he up off the couch, but he's walking from archery to tree climb to the lake.'"

If we march to the beat of a different drummer, Sally Hough thinks she knows why. "We all resonate and vibrate differently," says Hough, a veteran music therapist. In fact, our individual rhythms and melodies are as unique as fingerprints.

"There's never been a culture on earth, anywhere, that didn't develop music," Hough says. "There's a real big debate as to whether music is as essential to health as breathing."

Executive director of the Columbus Music Therapy Center and president of the Institute for Music and Human Potential, Hough marvels at the benefits of music therapy, particularly for children with autism, asthma, cerebral palsy, William's syndrome, Rhet's syndrome and Down syndrome.

"One of the biggest things these kids need is a sensory-based education," Hough says. "Music is a 'whole-brain' thing, and that's what's really important – the big difference between music and other therapies."

Special needs individuals respond to music for several reasons. Its structured, orderly rhythms help reset internal clocks that often run too fast or too slow, while its chords and melodies tap into limbic systems otherwise overwhelmed by society's noise pollution.

"When a child is engaged in rhythm, we're putting that [innate] internal structure into them that most kids develop over time naturally," Hough says. "In ADD children, that rhythm is very fast and needs to be slowed down a bit. With autistic kids, it needs speeded up. Some like minor chords better than major. I get a blueprint of each child – what melodies that child enjoys – and develop it nto a communication pattern between us. Pretty soon, we're talking back and forth, non-verbally."

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