Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

Can music therapy help? Maybe.

Emotions affect learning. And many children with reading disabilities have extremely negative emotions about reading.  Maybe your child is depressed about his struggles. Maybe he keeps telling himself:

• I can’t read. I’m stupid.
• I’ll always fail.
• I’ll never read. No sense trying.

The longer such self-destructive thoughts and emotions plague children with reading disabilities, the longer their mental health, motivation to read, and their achievement will suffer. To reverse this, it’s critical to help them replace their negative, pessimistic emotions with positive, optimistic ones, ones that make them want to read, want to make the effort, want to enjoy a good book. For some children with reading disabilities, music may be key.

Why? If emotions affect learning, music affects emotions:

Music seems to offer a novel system of communication rooted in emotions rather than in meaning…. Music reliably conveys certain sentiments…. We may never know why music exists…. But even amid uncertainty about music’s origins, we can still use songs to pump ourselves up or calm ourselves down, ease pain and anxiety, bond with others or simply move people to tears. (Schrock, 2009)

Think about yourself. If you’ve had a hard day, does listening to a favorite piece of music buoy your spirits? It does mine. If my day was tough and I’m emotionally drained or irritable, I’ll repeatedly listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, or Duane Eddy’s guitar, or Clifton’s Chenier’s zydeco music. Occasionally I’ll throw in the driving music of Bob Seeger or the Max Weinberg 7.

But this is me. You probably like other music. Certainly my wife does.

So, why do schools and reading specialists forget the power of music when trying to help struggling, discouraged readers replace negative, pessimistic emotions about reading with positive, optimistic ones? Why do they not associate reading with rejuvenating music? Why do they forget the power of music to motivate? Probably because music has always been for music class, not for reading, not for counseling. And, “we’ve never done that.”

For children whose progress in reading is blocked by negative thoughts, emotions, and fears of failure, for whom traditional counseling has failed, I suggest you consider music therapy. An outstanding book on the topic is Dr. John Pellitteri’s Emotional Processes in Music Therapy. As Dr. Pellitteri makes clear, music therapy involves far more than playing music. It uses music to help children solve the emotional issues that pain them. This requires a highly trained, skilled, and credentialed counselor who understands how to integrate music and counseling and how to use music to influence emotions and thoughts.

If you think your child might benefit from music therapy, have him evaluated by a music therapist. Then consider these suggestions:

• Enroll him in music therapy with a licensed therapist who establishes a good relationship with him. Ask the therapist to observe him in reading instruction and interview his teachers and reading specialist to better understand what might be fueling his negative emotions and pessimism. If he’s in special education, request the IEP Team to make music therapy a related service. If the Team agrees, the school will arrange for therapy. Chapter 11 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds defines and discusses related services.
• Ask your child’s teachers and his reading specialist to closely monitor his behavior and reading achievement. This will help determine the effectiveness of therapy. Keep in mind that at first progress may be slow; it may take three months to see the effects.  If your child is in special education, his IEP should have a strong section on monitoring. Chapter 7 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds explains how you and your child’s teachers can monitor his progress.
• Ask his music therapist to collect data on his progress and share it with you. One reason for doing this is that therapy, like teaching, is an experiment. You need data to know if it’s working and, if not, to make adjustments.
• Ask his therapist to show you how you might help him at home without becoming a therapist.

If you would like to learn more about music therapy, I strongly recommend Dr. Pellitteri’s book. Although it’s written for professional music therapists, it might teach you, as it did me, a great deal about an important but under appreciated therapy with great promise for helping children with reading disabilities.

References
Margolis, H., & Brannigan, G. (2009). Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. Voorhees, NJ: Reading2008 & Beyond.
Pellitteri, J. (2009) Emotional Processes in Music Therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
Schrock, K. (2009).  Why music moves us. Scientific American Mind. Retrieved 10/29/2009, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-music-moves-us.

HM (c) Reading2008 & Beyond