Singing Therapy Helps Stroke Patients Regain Language

When a person suffers a stroke, often the first thing that they lose is their ability to communicate through speech. Recent studies have shown that one of the best ways to teach patients with severe brain impairments to speak again is through the use of singing therapy. One of the main reasons this treatment works so well is because music and language are very intricately linked in the brain and singing is able to activate more regions of the brain simultaneously than almost any other activity. Activating regions of the brain is extremely important because, although the left side of the brain plays the major role in language and speech, the right side has the ability to compensate for left-side deficits. The phenomenon of stroke patients being able to sing but not speak has been observed for generation but only now is the scientific reasoning for this clear.

I was so interested in this article because I have actually seen a stroke patient be able to sing certain songs but not verbally communicate to their caregivers. This shows how awesome the human body is and how it is able to evolve and change in order to meet a person’s needs. It is estimated that singing therapy could benefit 60,000 to 70,000 people a year, and if this is truly the case, this treatment could be a great breakthrough in stroke rehabilitation.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/22/aaas.music.language/index.html


Brittany Guth
VTPP 435-501