Drumming Up Success :: How Music Helps Kids Learn and Heal

Disclosure :: this post is sponsored by Children’s Hospital.

Drumming Up Success :: How Music Helps Kids Learn and Heal

Music offers many benefits to help children prepare for future success. Involvement in music may improve a child’s cognitive development as well as physical coordination.

Other important benefits include:

  • Learning creative thinking
  • Learning to express feelings and emotions
  • Improving language and reasoning skills

Some studies show engagement in music experiences can raise even raise a child’s intelligence and test scores.

One study found that children who took music lessons for 1 year increased their IQ scores by 2.5 points compared with children who didn’t have music lessons. The study suggests that the increase in IQ may be because of the focused attention, memorization, and concentration skills needed to study music.

Music and other art programs help to increase a child’s imagination and the confidence needed to make decisions on his or her own.

At Children’s Hospital New Orleans, specially trained, board certified music therapists use music to assist or motivate patients to complete goals related to their hospitalization. Music Therapy can assist with coping skills, pain management, sensory and developmental stimulation, enhancing the rehabilitation process, promote self- expression and decrease stress and anxiety.

Music therapy usually occurs in an individual setting and can be done at the patient’s bedside, intensive care units or in Children’s Hospital’s very own Music Therapy Room.

“Music can be experienced anywhere,” Kim said. “There are so many great opportunities to experience music — either by playing, listening or even dancing — all around our city and throughout the year.”

At this year’s Children’s Hospital’s Pig Pen at Hogs for the Cause March 23-24, Dancing Drum, a local music education program, will provide a hands-on, music-making workshops for all ages.

About Kim Bell

Kim Bell has been a Board Certified Music Therapist at Children’s Hospital New Orleans for more than 30 years. In addition to her work at the hospital, Kim is also a member of the New Orleans Volunteer Orchestra (NOVO) and is active in the American Music Therapy Association. She plays the flute, piano, guitar and ukulele and works closely with the Ukulele Kids Club, and organization that collects and donates ukuleles to kids in the hospital so that they can heal through the joy and power of music.

Children
Children’s Hospital New Orleans is a 229-bed, non-profit academic pediatric medical center that offers comprehensive healthcare services, including over 40 pediatric specialties, delivered just for children. With more than 400 physicians trained in more than 40 pediatric subspecialties, Children’s offers a comprehensive array of pediatric healthcare services in Louisiana and the Gulf South. In addition to its main campus located in New Orleans, the hospital operates a network of specialty clinics across Louisiana and in Southern Mississippi, including in Covington, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette. Children’s Hospital offers primary care services at 15 convenient locations throughout Southeast Louisiana and remotely via its Virtual Care app. Children’s Hospital is a proud member of LCMC Health, a Louisiana-based, not-for-profit hospital system which also includes New Orleans East Hospital, Touro, University Medical Center New Orleans and West Jefferson Medical Center. Learn more at chnola.org.

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