Melodic Intonation Therapy

Down syndrome (Syndrome 21) is the most common chromosomal abnormality that occurs in one out of 691 children born in the United States ("Down Syndrome", 2012). Child with Down syndrome shows marked developmental delay in exercise, language and language development (Partin Vinson, 2012). These children are lagging behind important areas of typical language development including limited vocabulary and intellectual disabilities (Berk, 2004). Regarding language development, children with Down's syndrome generally have the ability to accept languages ​​rather than expressing languages.

One million people suffer a stroke every year around the world, language impairment is one of the most common results. The therapist in the 1940s began to develop a technique called Melody Tone Therapy - using melodies and songs to help stroke patients regain their speech. This idea makes sense; after all, the infant learns the alphabet through songs and 'motherese' - this is a word of tribute for the baby found in every culture on Earth. Since then, innumerable studies have recorded how music helps speech recovery. Probably the most prominent example is the American women MP Gabriel Gifford. She was shot in 2011 but survived the assassination attempt. She believes that music therapy can help her regain the ability to read, write and speak.

Inspiration for melodic tone therapy comes from the observation that nonfluent aphasic patients sometimes sing words or phrases they do not usually speak. "The beginning of melodic tone therapy is to try to remind search terms and expression languages ​​using the complete melody / prosodic processing skills of the right hemisphere to treat aphasia." This is because the ability to sing is It is because it is stored in the right hemisphere. After a stroke, the left hemisphere may remain unaffected. However, recent evidence suggests that the ability of aphasic patients to sing the entire article may actually come from rhythmic features and familiarity with lyrics.

The purpose of Melody Tone Therapy is to use these areas to access the area of ​​the right hemisphere with language ability using songs and to compensate for the loss of function of the left hemisphere. The natural musical element of speech is used to attract the patient's ability to create phrases. Clinical studies suggest that singing and rhythmical utterance may be equally effective in treating non-fluent aphasia and utterance aversion. In addition, evidence from a randomized controlled trial confirms that melodic tone therapy is suitable for improving discourse and linguistic intelligence of propositions of individuals with (fluent) non-fluent aphasia and speech aphasia It is still needed for.