Neural connectivity, music, and movement: a response to Pat Amos

WHERE RHYTHMS COINCIDE? Pat Amos documents the power of the rhythmic moment in autism, connects it to current thinking in developmental psychology, and draws practical lessons for therapeutic intervention. One question therapists in practice may struggle with is convincing some parents and other professionals of the potential power of these types of interventions. As a movement and music therapist I recall a mother telling me about her recent visit to a prominent pediatric neuropsychiatrist. The neuropsychiatrist was once again recommending a regimen of heavy medication and behavioral therapy. The mother told her that she felt her son was making great progress through work with rhythm and movement. “That won’t hold,” said the neuropsychiatrist. Will it hold? Can a movement based intervention compete with a pharmaceutical one? The idea can meet with great skepticism. However, there is a strong argument to be made from neurobiological theory that a rhythmic intervention holds the potential to be at least as powerful as a chemical intervention, and the broader one’s investigation into neurobiology, the more the arguments for this view accumulate.