inquiry thesis

7/30/2019 Inquiry Thesis

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Welch 1

Jordan Welch

1103-10

Mrs. Thomas

4/22/2013

Can Music Cure Autism?

Music. How does it affect you? How does it change you? How does it

help/hurt you? In many ways people can tell that music has some sort of effect on

them. Whether it be making them happy, sad, angry, relaxed, or even depressed. I

would venture to say that music has an effect on everyone. Even those people who

suffer from mental illnesses. You wouldnt suspect that a mental illness could be

cured with music. but I believe not only that it can be cured but that it can also be

triggered.

As a musician, I understand the concept of how music can change the

way you feel. Every chord has a distinct sound. Most major chords sound happy,

and most minor chords sound dark and depressing. This is why music could change

your current mood. Music almost seems to change the way you think when you

hear certain chords. Some chords have an almost healing effect. These chords, the

ones that seem to heal, I will refer to as cures. As for the minor chords, some of

these can put you into a state of sadness or bring back memories that are usually

dreary. These chords will be referred to as triggers. The cures are the healing

chords, the chords that can turn that frown upside down. The triggers are the

chords that can trigger a mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia or bi-

polar.


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Now just because I have separated the chords does not mean that

each set of chords can only function under my predetermined groups. If a song is

written in all cure chords it can still be a trigger in some peoples minds. This is why

it is tough for science to grasp the mental affect of music. Everyone reacts to music

in a different manner. Everyone hears something in a song that speaks to them

personally. Even the writer of the song cannot grasp every meaning that people will

take from their song. People have different reactions, everyone knows this. Even if

a songwriter tries to write a song to have a certain emotion triggered, while it may

trigger that emotion for one person on one day, it could have a completely different

emotion triggered on the next day. Musical emotions are hard to predict because

they are determined by mood. Now is where it gets a little tricky. Those people

who suffer from autism and several other mental illnesses have a lack of emotions.

Now, if they have a lack of emotions how can music affect them since music relies on

the emotions to trigger feelings?

I their article we learn that Dr. Cathro and Dr. Devine understood this

concept well. They understood that society considers people with mental illnesses,

such as autism, different because they have a lack of emotion and social skills. The

two doctors refrenced created a program for the mentally ill and used music as the

center for learning in the class. They not only tried to teach the children about

music but tried to get the children to a state where the responded on an emotional

level. They actually had some success with the classes and many of the students

who participated increased their social skills (Cathro & Devine).


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Another example of musical therapy working to increase social behavior is in

Kolmans article Easing Autism with Music. The article starts by describing a

situation of a father daughter clarinet duo and then it drops the bombthe daughter

is autistic. It then states how most people with autism can only play the piano

somewhat due to hitting a key and a note playing. The clarinet has a lot of things

going on at once and is extremely difficult for those with autism. The daughter was

selected for the band at school and her father, a music teacher at Washington and

Lee University, started giving her lessons at home. He tried a new style of teaching

with her to see if it would work and to further his own teaching abilities. After she

learned how to play, her parents noticed she was more interactive at home and with

school. To me, the article shows that music can obviously help those who suffer

from autism and feel different and separate themselves from other people. Once she

learned the clarinet, she gained confidence that she was in fact normal and fit into a

group, the band (Kolman 66-68).

Even though it seems like these articles and most tests are always done on

children, development of the brain does not affect learning as much with autistic

patients. As noted in the article Role Of Music Therapy In Social Skills Development

In Children With Moderate Intellectual Disability, Factors including the age and

gender of the participating children were not found to be related to the

development of social skills across either intervention investigated over the present

study (Duffy, Barbara, & Fuller 77-89). I believe this is true because those with autism

and other mental illnesses have the brain development of a much younger person. This is


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why, whether testing on an adult with autism or a child with autism, the results will be

close if not the same.

There are many people out there who are skeptical of musical therapys impact on

mental illnesses. Some of these people are therapists who do not believe in musical

therapy even on regular patients, others are scientist who think that the emotions felt from

music are just made up because we feel what we want to feel not what is triggered by

music. Maybe they are just stubborn, hard-headed, and resistant to new ways of doing

things. Or maybe they have a point. It truly is amazing what the mind can do, It can

make you see things that are not real, hear things that are not there, and even feel things

that do not exist. If a person goes into a musical therapy session with no skepticism and

fully expects to see progress in their healing it is one hundred percent feasible for that

person to not be helped one bit but be able to feel a difference. This is because the mind

caused the person to feel healed when in reality the musical therapy did nothing. This

attests to the power of the mind, If you believe in something the mind could potentially

make it real. Obviously someone is right, but no one really knows for sure if they are

right. The evidence suggests that people who think musical therapy can help with mental

illness are correct. But evidence does not necessarily mean truth. Musical therapy does

not only help those with mental illnesses though.

Research has been conducted on those patients suffering from a disorder called

tinnitus. Tinnitus is a hearing disorder where there is a constant high-pitched ringing in

the ears. Researchers tried to combat this hearing disorder with music. Sounds rather

dumb to combat a hearing disorder with sound but it was said to have helped over half

the patients (Yoshioka). This is one example of musical therapy helping people with


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no mental illness. Another example was conducted by Naik, which was studying the

overall mental health of children. Over an eight week period Naik, the researcher,

held 45 minute long classes everyday of the week that the kids would participate in.

During the classes the kids would not only listen to music but would also sing. By

the end of the study the research showed that the musical therapy increased every

kids mental health(Naik, 1-5). In both of these studies, the mind could have played

tricks and convinced people they really were being helped.

This is why the study of musical therapy and its benefits is tricky. There is

almost no way to tell if the therapy is actually helping or if the mind is helping.

Either way I guess it really does not matter as long as they are both helping. I

personally believe that musical therapy does work and is the therapy of the future.

Anything that triggers emotions is going to have a strong affect on the body. This is

why I believe that musical therapy can help those people with mental illnesses. As

the title states, can music cure autism? No, I do not believe it can cure it but I

believe it can reduce the affects of it and help the autistic person be more socially

acceptable.


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Works Citied

Bruscia, K. (ed.) (1998). The dynamics of music psychotherapy. Gilsum, NH:

Barcelona Publishers.

Crowe, B. J., & Colwell, C. (Eds.). (2007). Effective clinical practice in music therapy:

Music therapy for children, adolescents, and adults with mental disorders. Silver

Spring, MD: American Music Therapy Association.

Cathro, Murray, and Adam Devine. "Music Therapy And Social Inclusion." Mental

Health Practice 16.1 (2012): 33-36. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.

Duffy, Barbara, and Ray Fuller. "Role Of Music Therapy In Social Skills Development

In Children With Moderate Intellectual Disability." Journal Of Applied Research In

Intellectual Disabilities 13.2 (2000): 77-89. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27Mar. 2013.

KOLMAN, BARRY. "Easing Autism With Music." Education Digest 78.8 (2013): 66-68.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.

Masanobu Yoshioka, et al. "Using Fractal Music As Sound Therapy In TRT Treatment."

Audiology Online (2013): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.

NAIK, DINESH P. "Impact Of Instrumental Music On Mental Health Of Adolescents."

Indian Streams Research Journal 2.10 (2012): 1-5. Academic Search Complete. Web.

10 Apr. 2013.

Scovel, M., & Gardstrom, S. (2002). Music therapy within the context of

psychotherapeutic models. In R.F. Unkefer & M.H. Thaut (Eds.), Music therapy in the

treatment of adults with mental disorders: Theoretical bases and clinical interventions

(2nd ed.) (pp. 117-132). St. Louis, MO: MMB Music.


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