Etichetă: music therapy plan

The development of language competence, of verbal skills and the enhancement of verbal communication in children with intellectual disabilities that leads to school and social inclusion requires a complex approach. Expressive language in children with intellectual disabilities is significantly related to verbal comprehension, to vocabulary, and also to the language difficulties of those children and to their early involvement in intervention programs. The present study is focused on the use of a music therapy program for five students with intellectual disabilities, communication difficulties and behavior disorders due to different causes, aged between 11 and 12. Measures before and after the implementation of the program were used to assess the psychological age of language and auditive understanding of language, the results showing significant improvements of verbal and non-verbal communication, the students proving in the same time a greater desire to interact with peers. As a result, students also acquired a greater ability of using gestures, mimics and other forms of non-verbal communication.