Somatron Vibroacoustic Products
Massachusetts Association
for the Blind
Clinical Experiences
Type
of Facility: State Facility for Blind and Multihandicapped
Individuals
Patient Population using the Somatron: Students
enrolled in the Massachusetts Assoc. for the Blind
Multihandicapped Children's Program
Date of Reported Experiences: August,
1990
Primary Findings: Improved communication.
Assisting in post-seizure recovery.
Music Used: Not reported.
Contact Information: Dr. Beth Denisch, DMA-ABD
Massachusetts Association for the Blind
200 Ivy Street
Brookline,
MA 02146
Phone: (508) 537-1514
In
a letter written to Senator Kennedy, Dr. Beth Denisch, Music Therapist
for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind, discussed the success
of Music Therapy with residential students at the Massachusetts Association
for the Blind’s Multihandicapped Children’s Program. Children whose physical handicaps prevent
their participation in live Music Therapy sessions are provided with
opportunities to experience vibrotactile stimulation via a Somatron. Dr. Denisch discusses several clinical
uses of the Somatron with her students during her letter. For students that are hearing impaired,
she tells how “feeling” music through the Somatron “accentuates” anything
that they may be able to hear.
Dr. Denisch reports that the experience “effects communication,
creating an understandable link to them between what they are hearing
and feeling”. One technique adopted by Dr. Denisch during
these Somatron sessions is to reinforce the student’s experience by
tapping the rhythm and / or melody being experienced through the Somatron
on the student’s body. This,
she reports, brings the student in touch with the outside world, allowing
him or her to share their experience with another person.
Many
of the students of the facility suffer from chronic seizures. Dr. Denisch reports, in her letter, that
the Somatron has been used successfully after a seizure to help students
“transition back to a more daily awareness”.
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