Effect of music therapy based on traditional Chinese musical instruments on fine motor development of patients with mental retardation

Abstract

Background

Mental retardation is a kind of mental disorder in which the intelligence of the patient is lower than that of children of the same age before maturity, which is specifically manifested as difficulties in social adaptation and sports ability defects. Music therapy establishes a good therapeutic relationship through music experience, without obvious toxic side effects. Therefore, the study used traditional Chinese musical instruments to intervene in patients with mental retardation and explore the therapeutic effect on fine motor development.

Subjects and Methods

The 68 children with mental retardation who came to our hospital from February 2019 to June 2020 were selected and included in the study according to their compliance and the principle of parental voluntariness. Then, 68 children’s fine motor development quotient and original scores of fine motor test items were evaluated and recorded by Peabody Motor Development Scale. The patients were given music therapy with Chinese traditional instruments and music playing, three times a week. After 12 weeks of treatment, they were evaluated again with Peabody Motor Development Scale.

Results

Table 1 shows the comparison of children’s fine motor scores and development quotient before and after music therapy. The results showed that the fine motor of the children improved significantly after treatment, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001).Table 1.

Comparison of fine motor score and development quotient of children before and after music therapy

Project	Grasping ability	Visual motor integration	Fine motor development quotient
Before treatment	27.76±3.38	50.61±9.63	54.78±4.72
After treatment	31.18±3.75	58.41±8.56	58.71±5.13
t	5.586	4.992	4.649
P	0.00	0.00	0.00

Conclusions

Mental retardation is a kind of mental disorder that endangers the healthy growth of children. The study used music therapy of traditional Chinese musical instruments to treat patients with mental retardation. The results showed that the method effectively improved the fine motor function of children and had certain clinical application value.