The Role of Assessments in Neurologic Music Therapy®

Assessments are a huge part of any type of therapy, they help create baselines, show progress, and are vital in research. Whether you realize it or not assessments are a common practice in therapeutic settings including Music Therapy, especially in Neurologic Music Therapy®.

At Musical Bridges we want to be as transparent as possible with our clients and their support system. We routinely complete assessments that are congruent with client goals and disseminate the information garnered from them. We want our clients and their families to be present in their treatment and knowledgeable to the how and why we do certain things.

As Neurologic Music Therapists® we do much more than an initial assessment for our clients. We have a robust list of assessments that can be applied and used to track data from client’s individual goals. With these assessments we are able to provide clients and families with pinpointed and specific data regarding their progress throughout Music Therapy.

Below we will answer some common questions we receive regarding assessments

What are assessments?

Assessments are standardized procedures that evaluate different skill levels in varying categories. You might be most familiar with medical or educational assessments used by doctors and teachers. Standardized testing, bloodwork panels, and similar items are all considered a type of assessment.

Assessments provide a clear data driven viewpoint of the therapeutic goals that are being addressed in Neurologic Music Therapy®.

How do assessments benefit me as a client?

Many times, assessments are for clinician use only, individuals won’t necessarily be provided with the information collected from the assessment. Even in these cases an assessment can benefit you, they provide your clinician with a non-biased gauge of how you are, or are not, progressing as well as a baseline to go from. At Musical Bridges we are very transparent with our assessments and documentation. We want families and clients to understand the therapeutic process and know that we are working towards their betterment.

Through assessments we are able to get a clear picture of where our clients are starting in specific goals, thus are able to see how far they have come. Assessments show us areas of need and assistance that we can then target very specifically in the therapy setting. They can also show us if an individual is plateauing, regressing, or far exceeding the initial goal.

When your clinician is more knowledgeable about where you are, they are able to provide you with personalized support within the therapeutic relationship.

How often do assessments occur?

Each assessment has a different protocol, and each individual is a different case. At Musical Bridges we have our clients in a quarterly evaluation system. Every three months we evaluate client progress and see if they are improving within the criteria their individualized goals call for. With that said they can occur on a different timeline for each individual depending on what assessment is used and what goal area is being assessed. We offer full transparency regarding assessments and can give exact time frames on a case-by-case basis.

How long is an assessment?

Assessments vary in length, our longest being our comprehensive initial assessment for new clients typically lasting one hour. Our initial process covers a wide range of skills and goal areas to help determine what an individual wants/needs to address in Music Therapy. The assessments used for specific goals take much less time, averaging no longer than five minutes in most cases. The more specified assessments target sole goal areas such as fine motor, memory, attention, etc.

Does an assessment take away from my time in Music Therapy?

It might seem this way, but assessments don’t take away time in you therapy session! While it may mean a little less time making music in the grand scheme it is only for your benefit that these assessments take place. We tend to do assessments either at the very beginning of a session or at the end so as not to disrupt the flow of a session or throw an individual off. In total out of a quarterly period assessment may take up a total of 20 minutes. Some assessments are done through therapist observation, active client participation, or forms filled out by caregivers and parents.

What assessments do Neurologic Music Therapists® use?

We utilize a collection of standardized assessments that have been created by professionals or by Neurologic Music Therapists® themselves, even Musical Bridges therapists. A large majority of our clients have similar/overlapping goals that we are able to use the same assessment for. The assessments come from professionals in an array of positions including but not limited to, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapist, ABA therapists, BCBA’s, and teachers. Neurologic Music Therapists® as well will create assessments based around different NMT™ techniques or around different individuals. In the case of individual based assessments, the data is used as a framework to assess the individual against themselves.

Specific assessments that we have used at Musical Bridges include, the Berg balance scale, nine-hole peg test, trail making test, and the mini-Stroop test. These assessments help us to better understand where our client’s need support.

Schedule your initial assessment today! Reach out with any questions you might have here; we are here to support you in your journey with Music Therapy.