Musical instruments linked to child development
Chularat Saengpassa
The Sunday Nation

Students at Panya Wuthikorn School in Chatuchak in Bangkok play music with re-designed instruments as part of a Srinakharinwirot University lecturer Tepika Rodsakan

BANGKOK: -- A Srinakharinwirot University lecturer has received PhD research funding after discovering Thai musical instruments promote the development of children with intellectual disabilities.

Tepika Rodsakan, a lecturer at Faculty of Fine Arts' Music Department, is doing a PhD degree at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts. The research funding was from the National Research Council of Thailand.

Tepika said the inspiration for her novel approach to learning came from organising activities for special needs children at Panya Wuthikorn School.

During the activities, she found the children had limited knowledge of how to use Thai and foreign musical instruments and that they were too big.

Tepika tried to get the kids play normal instruments like the flute, but they had trouble playing them as the instruments have seven finger holes.

So, she re-designed a flute - made it smaller and simpler to play - by having just two holes representing three notes.

Tepika also created a cut-down version of the 22-bar xylophone to be a five-bar xylophone, which also used colours as a symbol for notes - such as red representing "doh" and green representing "fah".

She then created a set of musical instruments for the children with intellectual disabilities and hopes the invention will help the children better access music because it promotes their development.

"The musical instruments combo that I created is developed from Thai musical instruments, which I have learnt," she said.

Tepika said the combo, designed for a band of up to 18 members, comprised string, wind and percussion instruments and used a button-pressing method.

The instruments are of vibrant colour to appeal to children and improve muscle strength and coordination while aiding overall development.

She first tried the instruments on children aged 8-10 and learned that kids liked them, playing on them for long periods.

"I didn't think they would keep playing the music instruments for long," she said.

"I thought they would just play them for 20 minutes at best, but I found that they could keep at them for an hour, although they would not stay on the same instrument, but shift from one instrument to another throughout the one-hour period."

Tepika also composed four new Thai songs for the children to play together in a band or solo. The songs use repetitious notes so the kids can remember them.

Tepika's PhD research will focus on children with an IQ of between 50-70 and aged 8-10.

She said the kids' mental capacity was the equivalent of four to five-year-olds.

Tepika hopes her method will be used for all children with intellectual disabilities. She believes Thai music is not used enough to promote a child's development, particularly with special needs children.

-- The Nation 2014-03-02

My babies danced and kicked inside their mothers belly, when i put the speaker on her belly and played my tunes whilst she was pregnant.

Pleased to read this as it will certainly help the, at present backward, attitudes of Thai education and children with learning difficulties. However to say "discovered" is a little much. This has been common knowledge for a LONG time and there are numerous systems globally that foster this attitude. The most famous being Orff-Schulwerk founded by Carl Off in the 1920s.

Please, Dear God. My 8 year old wants a drum set. Oh god...please no.

It's good work.

My daughter and her pals are really into, of all things, ukeleles. They're also quite adept at cleaning windows, leaning on lamposts and shouting "Mother!" are any given moment.

Always nice to see any developments which are beneficial to children with learning disabilities. Worked for a year in a Special education school many years ago, one of the greatest experiences of my working life.

I believe all children benefit from music classes, our son has been having piano lessons since the age of 4 and we have noticed that his general studies have improved.

Music is a part of development, where oh where would I be without the Beatles , Mersy Sound , Elvis, Tin tits Madonna, Cilla black , Eagles , the Big "O", Clapton, Dylan, ahh the memories, playing on a "G" string all night is more beneficial than being a member of The PTP any day. A bit of Sunday humour there for all the Hung over beer swilling lucky buggers.

They should try this for all Thai students. The Ministry of Education system here isn't working.

Music therapy ! Gee, why didn't anyone think of that one before ?

I believe all children benefit from music classes, our son has been having piano lessons since the age of 4 and we have noticed that his general studies have improved.

There was a study done a number of years ago regarding high IQ children.

The goal was to find out what environmental influences had made them

smarter. To the astonishment of the researchers, they found out that

most of the children had had piano lessons. Apparently learning complex

music such as a piano creates neural pathways between the right and left

side of the brain, increasing function. Not really sure playing a two note

flute would have the same influence as learning how to play a Chopin piece.

Needless to say, my daughter will have piano lessons next year.....

BKK Blues Brother, on 02 Mar 2014 - 06:08, said:

My babies danced and kicked inside their mothers belly, when i put the speaker on her belly and played my tunes whilst she was pregnant.

Tell me you weren't a DJ and did this in a club, please.........

Please, Dear God. My 8 year old wants a drum set. Oh god...please no.

We're going through the same thing with our 6 and 4 year old. They're both really keen.

Seriously considering an electronic kit to keep the noise down but something tells me its the acoustic noise that they're fascinated with!

Our 2 year old got a Ukelele for her 1st birthday. Bongos, tambourine and maracas for her 2nd birthday and an electronic (B3,000 Casio) keyboard for Christmas. She plays them all the time. Then again, we're both musicians too. The REALLY important thing is to let them discover them on their own. Guiding them too much is going to destroy their passion for it.

You don't need to spend big money but also you MUSTN'T buy cheap "barbie" (or similar) plastic "toys". Cheap instruments are better. We spent B2,000 on the Ukelele, B2,000 on the bongos and B3,000 on the keyboard. That way they get to enjoy real instruments that make a real sound and you won't be sad if they break then or play them once and never play them again.

Its their choice.

well that explains a lot

My babies danced and kicked inside their mothers belly, when i put the speaker on her belly and played my tunes whilst she was pregnant.

Depending on what "my tunes" you were playing, they may have been trying to escape.

I believe all children benefit from music classes, our son has been having piano lessons since the age of 4 and we have noticed that his general studies have improved.

There was a study done a number of years ago regarding high IQ children.

The goal was to find out what environmental influences had made them

smarter. To the astonishment of the researchers, they found out that

most of the children had had piano lessons. Apparently learning complex

music such as a piano creates neural pathways between the right and left

side of the brain, increasing function. Not really sure playing a two note

flute would have the same influence as learning how to play a Chopin piece.

Needless to say, my daughter will have piano lessons next year.....

I've read a lot of that stuff too. Not the studies themselves - but the distillations into paperback form. It is certainly fascinating.

Without taking away from your point I would note that your daughter is likely to derive more benefit from observing a parent who exhibits the kind of curiosity and involvement with the world you seem to than from the piano lessons themselves. In other words, whether or not she does in fact develop extra inter-hemispheric neural pathways she will benefit from living in an environment in which book learnin' is considered a natural activity instead of a chore.

Yessss....let the Thai parents "enjoy" the wonders of a young child proudly coming home from school with a (gulp!) recorder!!!! My God the painful memories of those wonderful days. Lets spread the pain worldwide.

Yessss....let the Thai parents "enjoy" the wonders of a young child proudly coming home from school with a (gulp!) recorder!!!! My God the painful memories of those wonderful days. Lets spread the pain worldwide.

Oh yes! After you have heard "old mother witch" 500 times (all wrong) then you truly know pain!

Please, Dear God. My 8 year old wants a drum set. Oh god...please no.

And... they are only about 800 baht for a full mini kit...

Best way to stop mine playing it is to insist he sit down and practice. make it look formal and they don't want to know.

We have keyboards, recorders ukelels etc. and they do make the kids think.

Nice article in these troubled times, comforting to know that life mostly does go on.

My daughter and her pals are really into, of all things, ukeleles. They're also quite adept at cleaning windows, leaning on lamposts and shouting "Mother!" are any given moment.

It seems ukuleles are the fashion at the moment with school kids and my step daughter wants one but like most fashions it will be last years fashion next week so she is getting a guitar for her birthday which she has also asked for.

Please, Dear God. My 8 year old wants a drum set. Oh god...please no.

We're going through the same thing with our 6 and 4 year old. They're both really keen.

Seriously considering an electronic kit to keep the noise down but something tells me its the acoustic noise that they're fascinated with!

A decent electronic drum kit will have good sounds on them.

The Yamaha Dtx400's and 500's (electronic Kit) sound good, they keep a decent resale value too, unlike cheap and nasty gear.

For the same price you can get a Korg Wavedrum Global Edition, which is a single-piece drum/drum synth that sounds fantastic.

Thai Any culture's musical instruments promote the development of children with intellectual disabilities of all intellectual levels.