Music Therapy

Our music therapists develop customized plans that meet the needs of each person we support in order to equip them to live a life of opportunity and contribution. The following areas are commonly addressed:

•    Fine Motor Needs: Children play instruments to strengthen fine motor skills (i.e. castanets, keyboards) or practice writing, using a song to structure the activity.
•    Motor Planning: Children play instruments, learn songs and fingerplay, and engage in other activities to aid motor planning skills.
•    Communication Skills: If a child is not speaking or has weak oral motor skills, they might learn how to play harmonicas, kazoos, recorders, or whistles to strengthen and support oral muscles and the diaphragm. Children who can speak will participate in singing activities that will teach appropriate speech volume, speech rate, articulation, and additional vocal skills.
•    Social Skills: We write social story songs to address areas where children are still developing their social skills. Additionally, our staff may work with the children in small groups to teach eye contact during conversation, how to ask questions appropriately, how to behave appropriately when upset, etc.
•    Academic Skills: Academic skills can be addressed in a musical format. For example, many children learn the ABCs by song because our melodic and rhythmic memory is much better than spoken word memory. For some children, songs make learning easier or sometimes even possible.

What regions offer Music Therapy?

Currently, these locations offer music therarpy:

Eastern Missouri
Southeast Missouri
Southwest Missouri

Please note that not all autism programs are available in each area. Please contact your regional office for a complete list of services offered in your region. For a full list of our locations, please visit our Locations page.

To learn more about our programs at Easterseals Midwest,
please contact us at 1-800-200-2119 or info@esmw.org.

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