At Cunningham Creek Elementary, music therapy makes difference for special-needs students

Published:	February 25, 2010
Source:	The Florida Times Union
Location:	United States (Florida)
Category:	Health
Media:	Photo(s)

Amanda Hunter, 11, is a typical middle-schooler, sporting a Jonas Brothers backpack and gushing over the group. But for Amanda, music holds more meaning than a simple boy-band crush. “Music helps me with multiplication,” the wheelchair-bound Amanda said with a proud smile. “Music is awesome. I learn a lot from it.”

Amanda is one of 250 special-needs students at Cunningham Creek Elementary School in Northwest St. Johns County. She is also part of the music therapy program at Cunningham Creek, the only school in the county that offers it, said Principal Betsy Wierda. Music therapist Minda Gordon said this is the fourth year since she began the program at the school and she has seen drastic changes in students such as Amanda. “There were students who we didn’t even think could talk. Now they dance and sing,” Gordon said. “We found that if you raise the bar for these students, they’ll jump it.”

Person(s) Referenced:

Minda Gordon

Modality:

Music Therapy

Health Condition:

Autism/Asperger's

Cerebral Palsy

Down Syndrome

Cusco Healing Center

Contact Us

Email: cuscotherapies@aol.com

Phone: (84) 974-292 739 (84) 974-287069

*We offer in-home services for your convenience. If you prefer the service in your hostel, we can bring all equipment and music to set up.

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Music Therapy Gives Voice to the Voiceless

Published:	February 21, 2010
Source:	Science Now
Category:	Health

It’s an impressive video. An elderly man in thick eyeglasses and a blue shirt sits in a wheelchair. A therapist sits across from him, off-camera. She tries to get him to say he’s thirsty, but he can’t produce the words. Several years ago, the man had a stroke that damaged the part of his brain that lets him talk, a condition known as aphasia.

Then, slowly, things begin to change. The therapist starts humming a simple, haunting melody: two notes at the same pitch, a third a bit higher, then back down. “I am thi-i-rsty,” she sings. Resting her hand on the table, she taps the man’s hand in time, encouraging him to sing along. “I am thirsty,” he sings, in harmony. She sings the sentence; he sings it back. She says the sentence. He says it back. What would you say on a hot day like today, she asks. “I am thirsty,” he answers. In a matter of minutes, a stroke patient who’s been unable to speak for years has learned to express a basic human need.

Organization(s) Referenced:

Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory

Person(s) Referenced:

Gottfried Schlaug

Modality:

Melodic Intonation Therapy

Health Condition:

Aphasia

Neurologic Disorder

Additional Coverage:

Wall Street Journal

CNN Health

Discover Magazine

Cusco Healing Center

Contact Us

Email: cuscotherapies@aol.com

Phone: (84) 974-292 739 (84) 974-287069

*We offer in-home services for your convenience. If you prefer the service in your hostel, we can bring all equipment and music to set up.

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Music on the mind: CSU department connects music to brain activity, healing

Published:	February 25, 2010
Source:	Rocky Mountain Collegian
Location:	United States (Colorado)
Category:	Health
Media:	Photo(s)

In a windowless room of the University Center for the Arts Tuesday sat patients of a group meeting to undergo a less common form of physical therapy. Everyone in the group shared a common trait; they all have Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impairs motor skills, speech and other functions of the brain.

Group members stood next to a wall, just in case they lost their balance, and turned their heads from side to side to the rhythm of a song being played on a piano in the corner of the room. The therapy session, headed by department research associate Ruth Rice and clinical coordinator Sarah Johnson, takes place every other Tuesday in the Center for Biomedical Research in Music in the UCA.

Cusco Healing Center

Contact Us

Email: cuscotherapies@aol.com

Phone: (84) 974-292 739 (84) 974-287069

*We offer in-home services for your convenience. If you prefer the service in your hostel, we can bring all equipment and music to set up.

Read More