1.
TOUCHING THE SOUND

2.
KALANI MUSIC VIDEO
• https://youtu.be/gn6E9GAe-7s

3.
WHAT IS MUSIC THERAPY?
• Music therapists must have a bachelor’s degree or
higher in music therapy from one of Canada’s college
or universities, including 1200 hours of clinical training
• Music therapists must hold the MTA credential, issued
through the Certification Board for Music Therapists,
which protects the public by ensuring competent
practice and requiring continuing education
• Music Therapy is an evidence-based health profession
with a strong research foundation
• Music Therapy degrees require knowledge in
psychology, medicine, and music

4.
GABBY GIFFORD VIDEO
https://youtu.be/tiJ9X_wLSWM?t=1m48s

5.
HOW DO WE HEAR MUSIC?
• Sound is produced when something vibrates
• Sound waves don’t just travel in air: they travel through
whatever they encounter, including your body
• Low frequencies/pitches are thicker than higher
frequencies/pitches
• That difference affects the way you feel the music
because with a low note, your body spends a relatively
long time actually inside the layers of low and high
pressure
• The waves of a high note travel through your body as
well, but they oscillate so quickly between high pressure
and low pressure that on the average you don’t feel any
real pressure change

6.
PROCESSING SOUNDS
• SENSITIVITY
(awareness)
• DISCRIMINATION
(Quality)
• RECOGNITION
(Consonance
sounds)
• COMPREHENSION
(Interpretation)

7.
AUDITORY CORTEX
• A 2016 study found no significant difference in the
auditory cortex– the part of the brain which processes
sound – in hearing people and profoundly deaf people
• Researchers took MRI scans of the brain of profoundly
deaf people and hearing people whilst they played
some high frequency and some low frequency sounds
• The scans were then studied to see which regions of the
auditory cortex were activated in each case
• The researchers compared the scans and found there to
be no significant differences were found in the auditory
cortex between those of the hearing people and the
profoundly deaf people

8.
ENTRAINMENT
• Defined by a temporal
locking process in
which one system’s
motion or signal
frequency entrains the
frequency of another
system
• This process is a
universal phenomenon
that can be observed
in physical (e.g.,
pendulum clocks) and
biological systems (e.g.,
fire flies)
• Entrainment can also
be observed between
human sensory,
cognitive, and motor
systems.
• Rhythmic entrainment
• Melodic entrainment

9.
MT INTERVENTIONS WITH
DEAFBLIND INDIVIDUALS
EVERY PERSON IN THE ROOM COMES WITH AN
INNATE MUSICALITY

10.
PLAYING INSTRUMENTS
• Improves fine and
gross motor
coordination
• Helps develop self-
reliance, self-esteem,
and self-discipline
• Enhances social
interactions
• Provides an
immediate success
experience

11.
MUSIC IMPROVISATION
• Verbal and non-verbal self-expression
• Promotes and further develops creativity and
individual thought
• Provides an opportunity to make choices and work
with structure in a creative way
• Offers a non-verbal social experience by practicing
leadership and turn-taking skills

12.
SINGING/VOCALIZING
• Aids with speech
impairments,
improve
articulation, rhythm,
and breath control
• Communication
• Form of self-
expression

13.
MT GOAL AREAS WITH
DEAFBLIND INDIVIDUALS
EXAMPLES

14.
MT GOALS
•Cognitive
•Motor skills
•Social
•Speech/Verbalizing/Vocalizing
•Behaviour skills
•Emotional skills
•Leisure skills

15.
EXPRESSIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• Research shows
music and
techniques used in
music therapy have
been used to elicit
communication
from deafblind
individuals

16.
WHAT ARE MOTIVATORS FOR
COMMUNICATION?
• Anticipation - to understand his or her environment
and the world around them
• Curiosity – experiences that spark something
internally that communicates the desire to further
understand what they have just felt/seen/heard
• Imitation – communicate with others by imitating
actions of those with how he or she interacts
• Music (unaided or aided) – fluid and/or intentional
repetitive movement to demonstrate recognition of
rhythm or flow of the music and the use of voice or
instrument to create sounds with varied duration,
contour, pitches, and harmonies

17.
DRUM COMMUNICATION!