Research in music therapy is revealing how singing or learning to play an instrument can assist people with physical, mental and speech challenges.

Yet after a half-century, music therapy is still pursuing the same degree of credibility given other forms of clinical therapy — not to mention coverage by insurance companies. But at least it is finally reaching the attention of the people who might benefit from it most.

"Music therapy doesn't address any music goals," said Keiko Kajiwara, a board-certified music therapist and founder of local nonprofit Sounding Joy Music Therapy. "We don't really put a goal for a person to improve singing or play (an instrument) better. ... Our goal is to help (clients') needs to be met and improve function. ... Music is just a tool."

Learning to sing, for example, can help someone with speech problems enunciate correctly. For patients with autism — which impairs social interaction and communication — singing or playing an instrument can allow them a dialogue with others they might not otherwise have.

"When somebody needs to express a feeling that they don't have words for ... musical sounds (can) serve as an alternative way to share and express themselves," said Arthur Harvey, a music therapy educator and retired University of Hawa'i-Manoa music professor now based in Florida. "Which is why, many times, music is so powerful on special needs individuals.

"It captures their emotion, and all of a sudden, they can identify with something that they understand without needing words."

Showing off musical skills to an audience — whether as small as a couple of parents or as large as the one attending the Concert of Extraordinary Abilities — also enhances self-esteem.

"If you do something well and somebody else rewards you by responding either with words, expressions, smiles or acknowledgement, it helps strengthen the sense of who you are," said Harvey.

All the science of music therapy needs now, Harvey and Kajiwara agreed, is to be taken more seriously by the medical establishment and granted more public awareness.

There are currently only four board-certified music therapists in Hawai'i and two of them — Kajiwara and Karen Kei — are at Sounding Joy. Nationwide, there are just under 5,000.

Additionally, music therapy is covered by only a handful of insurance companies — none of them in Hawai'i. Sounding Joy has about 30 clients and a waiting list of more than 150, but still laments a lack of acknowledgement of music therapy's benefits from many of the support agencies utilized by their clients.

"The majority of parents aren't really aware of the ways and different applications that music therapy has benefited individuals with pretty much any disability," said Harvey. "It could definitely be taken more seriously than it is. And part of that is lack of knowledge of what learning skills such as music making can do to (an individual's) development."

Music therapists who have seen measurable results in their clients from listening to or learning music, however, have no doubt of its therapeutic results.

"Music is so accessible. It's nonthreatening. It's everywhere. It's part of our lives," said Kajiwara. "It's not like going to surgery or getting a shot. It's non-invasive.

"Music really connects to your emotions directly. ... It really hits you in a way no other media does."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.