Archive for February, 2011
The Benefits of Music and Music Therapy For Children With Special Needs
Music can be a motivating and fun way to teach all children and in particular children who have special learning needs. It is unquestionable that through the medium of music many essential and enabling life skills can be learned and the benefits that playing and learning music can have on a child’s growth and development are immeasurable.
All children have the same need to express themselves and playing a musical instrument can provide an outlet for creative and emotional expression. When we think of music we don’t often think of it as therapy. But it can be.
The playing of good quality percussion instruments during music therapy sessions can be of inestimable value for children who have difficulties in hearing, seeing, moving, thinking or responding; each can experience the music in their own unique way. The music is not the goal of music therapy. Cognitive stimulation, self-expression, self-awareness, or increased motor movements are some of the goals that music therapy can focus on and the music itself is simply a tool to achieve these goals.
Listening to music for enjoyment is very beneficial but active participation is even better. For children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, playing music may be an effective way to stimulate speech development and communication skills, express emotions, develop a sense of rhythm and provide opportunity for physical, cognitive and motor development whilst creating an environment for socialisation and fun.
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Disability Review
Disability is a characteristic of life; it could be your spouse, it could be your child coming home from school getting hit by a car, you drowning, it could be the birth of your next child, your grandchild, your niece or nephew. Disability is a subject you may read about in the newspaper, but not think of as something that might actually happen to you.
SSDI is intended to be provided until one’s condition improves, and is intended to guarantee income if the individual’s condition does not improve. SSDI is a social insurance program, and benefits are only granted after a lengthy determination process, whereby the applicant must prove that they are disabled. SSDI is contrasted with Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”), a welfare program administered by the Social Security Administration for people whose poverty results from medical disability. SSDI is a wage replacement program which will provide benefits to family members if a primary wage earner becomes disabled. It is based on prior work while SSI payments are made on the basis of financial need. SSDI is financed with Social Security taxes paid by workers, employers, and self-employed persons.
Disabilities may include, but are not limited to chronic medical conditions. Most of us know people with disabilities who are going about their lives, working, supporting themselves and their families and actively contributing to the diversity and vitality of our communities. No parent of a child with learning disabilities has forgotten the moment when they were told their child has a learning disability. More and more opportunities are opening up for persons with learning disabilities. Parents, disabled persons and advocates for students with disabilities have raised harassment as an important issue in recent discussions with department officials and staff. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination based on disability by recipients of federal financial assistance, while the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entitles students with disabilities to a free appropriate public education.
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Understanding Dyslexia Learning Disabilities
Dyslexia learning disability is a state where an individual, usually a child, suffers from learning problem. Generally, patients find themselves having difficulty or unable to read, write, and spell. Also, dyslexics often have very poor memory.
Dyslexia doesn’t necessarily mean that a child’s intellectual capacity is below average. People who suffer from dyslexia are extremely smart and are very profound in what they do. The cause or pathophysiologic action of the disease is still currently not fully explained. However, contrary to common belief, dyslexia learning disability is a disorder that makes the individual who suffers from it unable to cope fast in terms of learning. It doesn’t have anything to do with their eye sights or vision capacity. Also, dyslexics do not see letters backwards and or unable to see letters at all.
The only known cause for dyslexia is genetics. Often, the disorder can be passed down from parents to child or grandparents to grandsons and granddaughters. It can be inherited so it is expected from every child to have difficulty in learning especially when their ancestral line has history of dyslexia.
Symptoms includes, slow response reaction that can be manifested by talking later than expected, difficulty of rhyming and learning new words. Thus, they are unable to learn new words and are often very frustrated in class. Dyslexic usually confuses single and short words. They also have difficulty relating letters to sound. Often they reverse the letters’ shapes and write backwards.
