BROWARD: Cadenza Center offers Music & Art Therapy

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The Cadenza Center is enrolling new clients for individual and group art and music therapy sessions. Saturday mornings sessions are available. Saturday groups will run weekly for 45-50 minutes and will be held between 9:00 - 12:00. Groups will consist of 2-4 children per group matched according to age, overall functioning, and clinical needs.

Music Therapy is particularly useful with autistic children primarily due to the nonverbal, non threatening nature of the medium. Parallel music activities are designed to support the objectives of the child as observed by the therapist or as indicated by a parent, teacher or other professional. Musical games like passing a ball back and forth to music or playing sticks and cymbals with another person might be used to foster this interaction. Eye contact and joint attention are encouraged with imitative rhythmic activities. Preferred music may be used contingently for a wide variety of cooperative social behaviors like sitting in a chair or staying with a group of other children in a circle.

Music Therapy is particularly effective in the development and remediation of speech. The severe deficit in communication observed among autistic children includes expressive speech which may be nonexistent or impersonal. Higher level autistic speech may involve echolalia, delayed echolalia or pronominal reversal, while some children may progress to appropriate phrases, sentences, and longer sentences with non expressive or monotonic speech. Since autistic children are often mainstreamed into music classes in the public schools, a music teacher may experience the rewards of having an autistic child involved in music activities while assisting with language.

It has been noted time and again that autistic children evidence unusual sensitivities to music. Some have perfect pitch, while many have been noted to play instruments with exceptional musicality. Music therapists traditionally work with autistic children because of this unusual responsiveness which is adaptable to non-music goals. Many of the goals addressed are similar to the objectives in other therapies such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, or behavior therapy.

Art Therapy may be an appropriate modality for children with autism due to their intense sensory needs (especially visual and tactile self-stimulation) and disregulation, often nonverbal nature, and need for more visual, concrete, hands-on therapies. Art therapy clients need not have artistic ability to benefit. In art therapy, the process (making art, the therapeutic relationship) results in a product (the art piece) that furthers more process and provides a visual history of therapeutic progress. Art therapy can provide safe, enjoyable sensory integration and exploration experiences that help create calm, regulated bodies and then move beyond mere exercises to help an individual incorporate their experiences into a product that helps to continue treatment. Generally, the goals in art therapy include addressing imagination and abstract thinking deficits, sensory regulation and integration issues, fine motor skills, social and relational skills, improving visual-spatial deficits, strengthening planning and sequencing skills, and addressing emotional development through improving frustration tolerance, etc.

The Cadenza Center is conveniently located in downtown Hollywood. Please see www.CadenzaCenter.com for more information about the potential benefits of music therapy and art therapy as well as learning about our comprehensive psychological treatments. Then, call our offices at to schedule your complimentary 15 minute consultation at our offices to see our facility and meet our therapists discuss your child's needs and interests with our creative arts therapists.