[Guest Blog] Speech Therapy and Music Therapy: A Complimentary Relationship

During the month of November, we are highlighting community partners that the Noteable Progressions team has had the pleasure to work with during the last year. These partners not only help us do our jobs better, they are also true advocates for music therapy. Today, we recognize Ashley Burns, MS, CCC-SLP.

A guest blog by Ashley Burns, M.S., CCC-SLP

About one year ago, I began working as the Speech-Language Pathologist, more commonly known as Speech Therapist, for a very pleasant 77 year old male who suffered a left sided hemorrhagic stroke. Mr. L’s* stroke resulted in the loss of ability to produce language, clinically referred to as expressive aphasia. I initially started working with Mr. L during his short-term rehabilitation stay and was fortunate enough to have him return for outpatient speech therapy (ST) a few months later. Mr. L, along with his extremely supportive wife, had been attending ST with me for several months when they asked my opinion regarding music therapy (MT) as an additional therapy. I quickly explained why collaborating with MT is a great idea, especially for Mr. L. Mr. and Mrs. L and I discussed that although ST and MT typically have a common goal, in this case to increase Mr. L’s fluency and ability to articulate accurately for effective communication, each uses different techniques and strategies to achieve this goal.

There are the frequent questions of whether ST and MT address the same things or why it is beneficial to do both, instead of just one therapy. As Mr. L’s speech therapist, I highly encouraged the collaboration and co treatment of ST and MT. Mr. L’s ST goals mainly focused on increasing articulation at the syllable, word, phrase, sentence, and conversation levels, respectively. Throughout therapy, Mr. L and I have also addressed several aspects of expressive and receptive language including reading and writing, as well as mathematical work, to increase verbal expression of numbers. ST goals have also addressed cognitive skills, including orientation, memory, and problem solving, especially to increase ability to utilize functional things like his cell phone or the microwave. As Mr. L attends both ST and MT, these areas may be worked on simultaneously, however through different, yet effective, approaches. Having the collaboration between ST and MT also helps to increase Mr. L’s carryover of speech, language, and cognitive skills.

As Mr. L’s speech therapist, I strongly believe that the relationship between ST and MT is a complimentary one. To support this belief, Norton, Zipse, Marchina, and Schlaug (2009) explain that “one of the few accepted treatments for severe, nonfluent aphasia is Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), a treatment that uses the musical elements of speech (melody & rhythm) to improve expressive language by capitalizing on preserved function (singing) and engaging language-capable regions in the undamaged right hemisphere.” Also in support of the complimentary relationship between ST and MT, Mrs. L stated, “With our daughter being a music teacher, she brought music therapy up from the beginning. I saw the difference in one or two sessions, where I could see it was beneficial.” Although Mr. L was initially apprehensive, he stated, “I thought, am I going to be able to do this? But I did!”

As Mr. L approaches his one year mark following the stroke, it is obvious that significant progress has been made. With strong support from his wife, children and grandchildren, and with aggressive ST and MT, Mr. L is now able to communicate effectively with family and friends, as well as in the community. He continues to be an active member at church, where he enjoys speaking with other churchgoers and singing psalms. I even had the chance to see Mr. L give a brief speech to an audience of about twenty people, during which time he spoke fluently and conveyed his message clearly. As Mr. L’s speech therapist, not only did this make me extremely proud, but it also helped to me realize how much both ST and MT truly helped him; not to mention there was not a dry eye in the room!

*For the privacy of the patient, initials have been changed.

References

Norton, A., Zipse, L., Marchina, S., & Schlaug, G. (2009). Melodic Intonation Therapy: Shared Insights on How it is Done and Why it Might Help. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169, 431-436. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04859.x