Music is very closely linked with language. Some people believe that we may have started to sing before we started to speak. The notion of language, each with it’s own particular rhythm and melody fascinates me. I was fortunate enough to work in two TBI hospitals one in the South of France the other in Texas, USA this pushed me to study and compare rehabilitating speech with two non – fluent aphasia stroke patients. Below is the abstract from the results of the research, and the presentation was first given at The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in June 2013 at the International Music Therapy Conference on Neuro-disability.
Neurologic music therapy: rehabilitating speech in brain injured patients from different linguistic populations.
Important differences have been identified in the approach and use of music therapy between English and French patients with non-fluent or expressive aphasia. In a clinical context, methods for music speech stimulation “MUSTIM” (Thaut 2008) and Melodic Intonation Therapy “MIT” (Albert 1973) were applied first with English patients and then these techniques were adapted for a French population. It was found that cultural diversity and the “musicality” of a native language can influence the patient’s capacity to recover their speech and language skills.
These experiences would support the view of Sacks (2007) that “speech itself is not just a succession of words in the proper order, it has inflections, intonations, tempo, rhythm and “melody”…. language and music both depend on phonatory and articulatory mechanisms.... and yet there are major differences (and some overlaps) in the representation of speech and song in the brain”. The overall findings are discussed within this context.
Key words: non-fluent aphasia, brain organisation of music and speech, native language, cultural identity, singing, interactive therapy, rehabilitation