The effect of music listening on excessive muscle tone of spastic cerebral palsied children

Abstract: This study examined the relationship between music listening and excessive muscle tone of spastic cerebral palsied children. Eight subjects, ages 5 to 13, two males and six females, were treated individually in eight 15-minute sessions over a period of four weeks. The experimental treatment was a five-minute taped music listening period, using either stimulative or sedative music, contrasted with a no-music condition in one session. Degree of muscle tone was measured in a pretest-posttest in each session using videotaping of resting posture and performance of an arm motion task. Evaluation of resting postures and task scores indicated a decrease in muscle tone for the group in each session, and showed that the music treatment had a varying effect on individual subjects. No difference was found in the effects of stimulative and sedative music on the muscle tone states of the subjects.

Keyword(s): Listening, muscle-tonus, children, cerebral-palsy, stimulative-music, sedative-music.

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