Applications of music therapy in special education and in hospitals

Abstract

In this paper we present a wide review of those experimental studies related to the efficiency of the utilization of the music therapy both in a context of special education and in the hospitals. Most of the checked studies contributes evidence in favour of the hypothesis of the utilization of the music therapy in children with learning disabilities has positive effects in different aspects, as they are: reduction of the anxiety, improvement of the emotional development, bigger psycophysical and emotional balance, and increase of the level of communication and social interaction. In a hospitable context, the music therapy has proved to be effective principally as a tool to reduce the anxiety and, partially, to calm the pain, though in this aspect the information is contradictory. From a methodological point of view, the checked studies suffer from serious problems, being needed, for this motive, a bigger experimental rigor in the studies that are carried out in this field. Meanwhile, conclusive results will not be able to be enunciated on the efficiency of the music as therapeutic tool in these contexts.

Key words: Music therapy, therapeutic effects of music, learning disabilities, anxiety.