running head: Music Therapy

Music Therapy
Jacqueline Todd
University of Saint Thomas Houston

running head: Music Therapy

Have you ever been driving after a long day and you turn on your favorite tunes on the
radio? Did you start to feel better? Music therapy is a therapeutic way of communicating and
reducing behaviors in adolescents with disabilities or mental illness. The one aspect of this
therapeutic I will be addressing is the effect of music as a use of positive reinforcement to reduce
behaviors. Behavioural Music Therapy is based on Skinners behaviorist theory and uses
various forms of playing and singing music or listening to music as a contingent reinforcement
or stimulus cue to modify behavior. (Gold, Voracek, Wigram). In using music therapy, a teacher
can reduce a potential melt down and use it as a positive reinforcement.
Some of the advantages I have found that work with music therapy is using it to
positively influence the students. I conducted a three-week trial in my classroom using the idea
of playing music when the students were working and when a meltdown was occurring. I used
the program 360 to place my trial information and collect my data. In the first trial I was just
playing music when they were good, it was shown that overall behavior such as; talking back,
getting out of seat, and non-compliance were reduced by 12% overall. That number was taken 5
days times 3 weeks and breaking the day down in 15 min increments. The comparison was done
by a previous three-week trial with no music just high fives and edibles as positive
reinforcement. The type of music played was consistent and the same each day. I did a cd draw
and the student all agreed upon the cd. Michael Buble. The CD never changed. The trial also
showed I had more productivity in academic work.
In the second trial I used one specific student. This particular student has an emotional
disturbance and Autism. His behaviors consisted with (hitting others, self-injuries, and throwing
furniture.) As his teacher I had noticed using the 360 data that his behavior had been increasing
since October. I called a huge district wide staffing and we started analyzing the data and came to

running head: Music Therapy

the conclusion my techniques and strategies were not working I inquired about trying the music
therapy and the state representative agreed we should try it. In the trial each time the student
would start to get irritated and a meltdown was about to occur I would suggest listening to music.
I would allow him to pick the song and cd from a list in the classroom. 7 out of 10 times the melt
down would stop immediately and his anxious behavior would decrease. Over the course of the
trial it was determined to use the music time as his break time when he would get to that point.
Music theraphy has been shown to affect the global state, general symptoms, negative
symptoms, depression, anxiety, functioning and musical engagement; large have been shown
after 16-51 sessions. (Hannible) Since then the student has been doing increasingly better. He
spends on an average day 15 minutes listening and calming himself.
One opposing view found that when doing music therapy among clients with
psychological disorders in a clinic that an increase in the dropout rate was recorded. It was not
known as to why. Piper et al. (18) reported that drop-out from treatment was related to a
weaker alliance, less, work, less exploration and greater focus on transference. Basically, by
focusing on the music therapy the other part (talking, understanding why we feel the way we feel
discussions) were not occurring which led to drop outs. However, when looking for tangible
evidence as to if music therapy works I could not find a tangible resource.
I will say based off of my trial run that the edibles and other forms of positive
reinforcements were still needed. I reduced the amount of them by half. I also found the
immediate tangibles of positive reinforcements worked better for some student versus others in
reference to how music therapy. What I mean by this is that as I was doing the music therapy I
found in one out of the seven students were not phased and that this particular student needed the
m&m to remain compliant and her behavior was consistent in the before and after trail runs.

running head: Music Therapy

Despite, the lack of opposing views it has proven in my trial that music therapy is a
reliable source for positive reinforcement and behavior reduction. I must add as a small key that I
too have changed in the trial. I use to be as the teacher manic and stressed and since the I too am
listening to the music it has calmed me and helped reduce stress in the classroom. Music therapy
is a great resource for general educators and especially special education teacher to use in the
classrooms.

running head: Music Therapy

References
Cassileth, Barrie. Music therapy. Oncology June 2009: 647. Health Reference Center
Academic.
Web. 29 Mar 2016.
Hannibal N, Nygaard Pedersen I, Hestbaek T, Egelund Sorensen T, Munk-Jorgensen P.
Schizophrenia and eprsonaity disorder patients adherence to music therapy. Nord J
Psychiatry 2012; 66:376-379