Running head: Individuals Should Participate in Both Group and Individual Therapy.

Megan Haky
Clarion University
2015

Individuals Should Participate in Both Group and Individual Therapy.

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Individuals Should Participate in Both Group and Individual Therapy.

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Parkinsons disease affects over one million people in the United States and
over eight million worldwide. The majority of those individuals are over the age of
sixty. Parkinsons disease is a degenerative disease which is caused by the
depletion of dopamine in the substantia nigra. Although speech is not affected in all
those who have Parkinsons the vast majority of these patients will develop a
speech disorder. When a person has Parkinsons disease and it causes a speech
disorder it is called hypokinetic dysarthria. Hypokinetic dysarthria is the term used
to describe the voice and speech abnormalities associated with Parkinsons disease,
which include reduced loudness or hypophonia, reduced prosodie pitch inflection, or
monotone speech, hoarse voice, and imprecise articulation. (Elefant, 2015)
When patients have Parkinsons disease they tend to think they are speaking
at a normal level but in reality they are speaking very softly and it can be hard to
understand. There can also be abnormal jitter levels and lower noise to harmonics
ratios. Clinicians have tried different voice therapies to treat these clients. The Lee
Silverman Voice Treatment plan has been very affective in treated voice problems in
Parkinsons. Now clinicians are exploring new treatments for voice disorders one
new treatment that has been implemented is Music Therapy.
Music therapy includes a series of vocal and singing exercises. With a
specific focus on health and wellbeing, music therapy intervention typically involves
live music making in dialogue with the client, where the therapist is present and
developing a therapeutic relationship with the client.(Magee 2015). The targets in
music therapy work on; expressive and receptive communication, choice-making,
oral motor, sequencing, motor planning, answering questions, phonemic awareness,
speech intelligibility and patterns of language. Rhythm-based exercises paired with
words can enhance speech intelligibility. An additional benefit is when patients with

Individuals Should Participate in Both Group and Individual Therapy.

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Parkinsons disease start showing progressive symptoms of the disease family
members of the patient or the patient themselves will withdrawal from one another.
Music is a way to bring everyone together again. Whats even more exciting is that
music can be a powerful tool in therapy Within a music therapy assessment,
musical components such as loudness, pitch, melodic contour, articulation, timing,
accent, phrasing and rhythm and the type of sound can be manipulated to
determine specific information about patient responses (Magee, 2005). It also has
other benefits to the patient such combating depression in some clients.
There have been studies done on individual music therapy with some
impressive results. One study by Woolsey showed that after the participants sang
two songs they had improved in many areas. The two songs were one that was
stimulus and one that was sedative or more simply put one had therapy targets
and one was just for pleasure. The results showed that they had read the rainbow
passage before and after singing(Yinger 2015). The rainbow passage is known for
having virtually every English sound in it. Woolsey found that participants rate of
speech decreased to a more normal rate after singing stimulative songs, while
rhythm, initial consonants, final consonants, and continuity of speech improved
after singing sedative songs. Woolsey also found that singing songs that the
participants liked was key.
Music therapy is also implemented in groups. Speech therapists can use
music therapy in a group setting to elicit more responses from their clients. There
have even been new choir groups made for people who have Parkinson s disease.
They feel more at ease because all of the members of the group have the same
voice disorder and are going through the same types of difficulties with their voice.

Individuals Should Participate in Both Group and Individual Therapy.

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Now that the individual and group music therapy have been explored there is
one type of therapy left to look into. There should be a study done on if the effects
of music therapy would be more beneficial if you combined both individual and
group therapy. The purpose of this study would be to prove that there are
differences in individual music therapy and group therapy and to see if there is
more productivity if they receive both. The method used to conduct this study
would be to get a group of individuals between the ages of sixty and eighty to
participate in either individual music therapy or group music therapy. The group
music therapists would work on improving speech intelligibility, voice quality, vocal
intensity range, and intonation. They would record their results over the course of
ten sessions. The individual music therapists would work with the same number of
people as the group music therapy just on an individual basis. They would also work
on the same targets of speech intelligibility, voice quality, vocal intensity range, and
intonation. They would also record the results over the course of ten sessions. Then
they would compare these results to participants who were in both individual and
group therapy. These individuals would receive individual music therapy once a
week to work on individual targets and then go to group music therapy once a week
to get social aspects along with targets.

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Refernces:
Elefant, Cochavit,PhD., M.T., Baker, Felicity A,PhD., R.M.T., Lotan, Meir,M.ScP.T., PhD.,
Lagesen, S. K.,

M.A., & Skeie, Geir Olve,M.D., PhD. (2012). The effect of group

music therapy on mood, speech,

and singing in individuals with parkinson's

disease - A feasibility study. Journal of Music Therapy, 49(3),

278-302. Retrieved

from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1181173563?accountid=26813
Magee, W. (2014). Interdisciplinary care of patients with prolonged disorders of
consciousness: the role

of music therapy. Journal Of The Australasian

Rehabilitation Nurses' Association (JARNA), 17(3),

16-21.

Yinger, O. S., & LaPointe, L. L. (2012). The effects of participation in a group music
therapy voice protocol

(G-MTVP) on the speech of individuals with parkinson's

disease. Music Therapy

Perspectives, 30(1), 25-31. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1041045758?accountid=26813