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The Effects of Music on the Cognitive Development of Students with Visual Impairments
Michelle L. Kim
Abstract

This paper will address the cognitive development of students with visual impairments.
Specifically, it will examine how music and auditory stimulation affects the cognitive
development of students with visual impairments.

Children with visual impairments rely heavily on sensory processing when familiarizing
themselves with how to maneuver and explore their surroundings. The development of these
skills is also significant when considering the compensation that is needed for the lack of
information that can be processed visually. In order to do so, students with visual impairments
must refine their abilities concerning sensory information processing as well as the use of
appropriate body movements and positions. That being said, Villasenor and Vargas-Colon’s
(2012) summary article “Using Auditory Stimulation with Students at Lavelle School for the
Blind” revealed that music-based auditory stimulation can influence the effectiveness of how
information is processed because constructive changes are being made to the auditory system.
Not only can it enhance auditory functions, but processing and other forms of functions as well,
when used at the appropriate duration, frequency, and intensity

For example, when music is incorporated into classrooms purposefully, it also prompts
purposeful movements of the students, thereby encouraging participation through these
movement activities. As elucidated in Coleman’s (2017) article, evidence suggested that stimuli
in the form of music enabled students to memorize contrasting forms of movement. This is
significant because the emphasis of these movements will advocate independent mobility in

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