Parent-child music therapy intervention with late talkers

Fedrigo, Giulia

4. term

Music Therapy, Master

2016

2016-05-31

48 pages

In this work a music therapy intervention with three families of late talking children is investigated with the aim to understand how a music therapy program could empower late talkers’ parents in engaging their children to enhance their communicative and interactional skills. Three mother-child dyads participate at the program that consists in 8 weekly sessions run by a music therapist that is also a speech and language therapist, at her private practice in Verona, Italy. Children were diagnosed by local or private services prior to attend the program and an evaluation of their language and communicative skills was conducted pre to post intervention using parent’s base questionnaires. During the program improvisational and re-creative techniques were adopted to facilitate children’ communication and participation, while parents, directly involved in the program, receive a model from the therapist on how to interact with their children using a responsive style (Girolametto & Weitzman, 2002). Parents’ active participation and initiative where analysed in order to understand parent’s involvement in the program and the different patterns of interactions with the child. To understand if some form of transferability happened between the music therapy setting and the home context MEL Questionnaire (Gottfried, Thompson, 2012) was administrated pre to post intervention. A final questionnaire and a follow-up interview were conducted to understand parents’ perceptions about the program and additional elements of transferability. Findings and understanding were shaped and explored thought a hermeneutic stance that informed the way this qualitative work was conducted. Findings underline a certain degree of transferability between the two settings that could affect the way music is used with the child in the everyday context and the pattern of interaction within musical activities. Parents’ highlighted the positive effects of enhancing their responsiveness in interacting with their child and recognized in musical activities an occasion to positively interact and communicate with their children overcoming their language difficulties. Understandings gained from this preliminary study aims to open a new discussion for the music therapy field on families of late talking children.

Music therapy ; family-centered ; late talkers ; language ; language impairment ; language development ; parent based

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