The popular and respected radio program “Science Friday” will devote a full hour this Friday, December 16, from 2-3 p.m. Eastern time to music therapy. Joke Bradt, Connie Tomaino, Andrew Rossetti and Dr. Oliver Sacks will join host Ira Flatow.
Click on
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201112161
for more information.
Ashley McCulloch is a high school senior from Wayne Central School district. For her senior project she chose to learn about music therapy, as well as to coordinate a fundraiser selling custom designed “Music Heals ♪” bracelets. Ashley chose music therapy because her friend’s brother has special needs and receives music therapy as a related service at school, and she thought that it sounded interesting. Through her research she learned about music’s unique powers of healing, as well as how music can be used to help people with disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and Autism. Ashley states, “I love to listen to music and it always helps me to feel better, but I had no idea that music could help people physically as well as mentally.”
The money that Ashley raised selling her bracelets is going to help several families pay the tuition for their child to enroll in our music explorer’s program this summer. If you are aware of a family who has a child under the age of 3 years old and can benefit from this tuition assistance, please refer them to our website. After completing the registration and adding “seeking tuition assistance” at the top of the form, they should mail it directly to our office. The tuitions will be granted on a first come first serve basis. Proof of financial need will be requested.
Check out our “In the News” page for a great article about music therapy and pediatric pain management, co-written by one of our own UMTC therapists. It’s an easy-to-read article for non-music therapists, and it gives a nice overveiw of the basic premises of music therapy, in addition to how music therapy can be used as a part of pain management in children.