To Heal the Body and Soothe the Soul
From birth, music can have a profound effect on the growth and development of children. Music can soothe and pacify, promote learning and offer a sense of security in a time of uncertainty. At AdventHealth for Children, the team of highly trained music therapists use live music therapy interventions to help children physiologically, neurologically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
To Whole-Person Health
- Inpatient Individual Music Therapy Session
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In one-on-one sessions, your child gets to interact with the music therapist in the privacy of their own hospital room. Your child will be involved in a variety of experiences that are interactive or passive in nature, based on their needs. Our littlest patients use instruments and other developmentally-appropriate materials, and participate in expressive activities, such as songwriting and improvisation.
- Inpatient Music Therapy Groups
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You and your child can attend weekly music therapy groups in the units to give them the space to interact with other patients through active music engagement. Group music therapy experiences are designed to bring our patients together in a fun, music making environment that allows your child to lead activities and play with a variety of instruments and materials. The music therapy groups focus on normalizing the hospital environment and provide a safe space to talk about different issues relating to the hospital environment through expressive music activities.
- Music Therapy in Neonatal Intensive Care
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At a time when babies are usually growing and developing in their mother’s womb, premature infants are exposed to the busy medical environment of the NICU and commonly endure painful treatments and procedures. The third trimester is critical for neurological development, but it can be disrupted by the stress these infants experience outside of the womb. NICU music therapy research shows that specific music therapy techniques help to increase premature infants’ tolerance to stimulation, resulting in faster weight gain and a shorter NICU stays overall. NICU Music Therapy trained MT-BCs use research-based techniques and treatments for our tiniest of patients.
The first therapeutic treatment is Multi-modal Neurodevelopmental Enhancement, which helps increase each baby’s tolerance to different types of stimulation in the NICU. Using live lullaby, infant-directed music, the music therapist systematically administers three different types of stimulation — auditory, tactile and vestibular. Through this process, each baby learns to tolerate the different sounds in the NICU as well as being touched and held. The second treatment involves using a device called the pacifier-activated lullaby (PAL) and is used to provide non-nutritive sucking and help preemies transition successfully in feeding. Research shows that babies treated with the PAL can gain weight and leave the hospital faster.
- Music Therapy at Outpatient Pediatric Rehabilitation
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Children with neurodevelopmental disorders also benefit from music therapy. It can effectively address communication, interpersonal skills, motor and cognitive development. These sessions in outpatient pediatric rehabilitation are success-oriented and involve your child in musical exercises in a way that’s both targeted and engaging. Our music therapist works with you and your family to develop a plan and address goals that are relevant to your child.
Outpatient music therapy evaluation and treatment sessions are now being offered at AdventHealth for Children Pediatric Rehabilitation (Minnesota Ave. location). Individual and group sessions are available.
These sessions treat a wide-range of conditions, including:
• Autism-spectrum disorders
• Developmental delay
• Neurological impairment
• Socio-behavioral disordersFor more information on outpatient pediatric music therapy, please email [email protected] or call Call407-303-5600, ext. 110-2812.
The Benefits of Music Therapy Services
Music therapy is the clinical use of music by a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) to help each patient reach their individual goals. Some of the goals we work toward with our pediatric population children include:
- Decreasing symptoms of depression, isolation and anxiety
- Eliminating or decreasing sedation for pediatric procedures
- Improving functional communication
- Improving neurological development
- Increasing and promoting positive coping skills
- Increasing a sense of control
- Increasing quality of life
- Increasing socialization
- Normalizing the hospital environment
- Pain reduction and management
- Promote developmental milestones
- Promoting motor rehabilitation and development
- Providing emotional support and expression
The board-certified music therapists who work with your child use music interventions that are informed and shown effective by research evidence, music therapy theory and clinical practice. These therapeutic treatments include improvisation, songwriting, lyric analysis, song discussion, music assisted relaxation and imagery, therapeutic instrumental music performance, and developmental speech/language and cognitive musical exercises.
Service Hours and Contact Information
The inpatient music therapy team is available Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5:30 pm. Once a referral has been made by your doctor, a music therapist will provide therapy based on your child’s needs. If your child is undergoing a certain procedure that you’d like music therapy to assist with after normal business hours, please contact the music therapy staff for availability.
If you have any questions about our inpatient and outpatient music therapy services or would like to speak with a therapist, please call Rich Moats, MT-BC, music therapy manager at Call407-303-5600, ext. 110-3167.