Resources & references

Watch the music therapy journey of a young girl with cerebral palsy and blindness. Her mother tells the changes she witnesses in her daugther during music therapy sessions. Also, this video explains how music therapy is provided in Northen Ireland. The Royal National Institute for the Blind advocates for more music therary access for children in this country. 

Simra was born with the rare conditions Lebers Amaurosis and Joubert Syndrome leaving her with total blindness as well as having poor muscle tone, co-ordination and balance. Watch as Simra explores the world through music with the help of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.

This story explores the research of Jorien Habing, a master’s student in Music Therapy at the ArtEZ, University of the Arts in Netherlands, who is one of the few music therapists in the Netherlands working with people with visual impairments. She explains: "Music therapy plays a role in facilitating the acceptance process of blindness." For her final research, Jorien examined the role of songwriting to help individuals in this new target population adjust to living with visual impairment.

This chapter describes the use of music technology as part of music therapy sessions at the Perkins School for the Blind. Diverse music therapy technology tools and their clinical use are described: voice output communication aids and switches, soundbeam device,  and music production softwares.