A few years back, I took a job as a nanny for two little girls, ages 18 months, and 5 years. Not yet having children of my own, I found it intriguing to watch them grow and develop over the next year. The time I spent with this family sparked a great interest in me on the topic of childhood development. I was immediately interested when I came across Valgerður Jonsdottir's article, "Musicking in Early Intervention." In my current internship site, I work with adults with various developmental disabilities. Throughout my work this semester, I have often wondered what supports my clients received in their early years and how more or less support may have affected their own development.
In her article, Jonsdottir offers a useful analysis of the underlying foundations for music therapy in early intervention. For any aspiring music therapist looking to work with this population, a solid and structured framework is presented here. She lays out the framework and main premises for early intervention which center around the crucial importance of early relationships and their effects on internal and external experiences.
There has been much research to support music as an intervention for premature or at-risk infants. In a study by Nicholson, Berthelson, Williams, and Bradley (2008), the effectiveness of music therapy interventions on 358 parents and their children was examined. According to the results of this study, the music therapy interventions "enhance children's behavioral, social, and communicational skills and promote positive parenting" (p. 234). This study, done over a ten week period, provides a positive outlook for music therapy in early intervention.
Simply stated, "The act of singing is one of the earliest and most common forms of musical interaction between parents and their children" (Nicholson, Berthelsen,, Abad, Williams, & Bradley, 2008, p. 227). It has long been common sense that the human voice has a direct effect on the growth and development of an infant. An example of this is the natural act of a mother singing to her unborn child and crooning a lullaby to her newborn as she drifts off to sleep.
What I found most striking in Jonsdottir's article, was her stance on how the relationships between the therapists, the caretakers, the children and the music are all very much interrelated. Each element directly and indirectly affects all the others. As I become a music therapist and develop my own theory, my foundations strongly lie in relational psychology. I truly believe that everything in life is relational and that we are all a product of internal and external related interactions. That being said, I believe that our earliest relationships mold and shape or development in the future. It is generally agreed on by attachment theorists that, "developing a secure parent-infant attachment requires the presence of a responsive and available primary caregiver who can respond sensitively to her infant" (O'Gorman, 2007, p. 101). The role of a music therapist is to bring caregivers to this awareness through musical interventions while demonstrating that natural music making has a profound effect on the child's development.
My only criticism of Jonsdottir's article is that I was expecting to read more about the musical interventions that take place in early intervention work. I am extremely interested in this subject yet I have not yet been able to witness work in this area. In the future, I would love to hear from others on how this work is being implemented in the field.
References
Jonsdottir, Valgerður (2002). Musicking in Early Intervention: Early Intervention as a Framework for Music Therapy with Caretakers and their Special-Needs Infants [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved Nov.6, 2008, from http://www.voices.no/mainussues/Voices2(2)jonsdottir.html.
Nicholson, J., Berthelsen, D., Abad, V., Williams, K., & Bradley, J. (2008, March). Impact of music therapy to promote positive parenting and child development. Journal of Health Psychology, 13(2), 226-238.
O'Gorman, S. (2007, June). Infant-Directed Singing in Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 28(2), 100-108.
A few years back, I took a job as a nanny for two little girls, ages 18 months, and 5 years. Not yet having children of my own, I found it intriguing to watch them grow and develop over the next year. The time I spent with this family sparked a great interest in me on the topic of childhood development. I was immediately interested when I came across Valgerður Jonsdottir's article, "Musicking in Early Intervention." In my current internship site, I work with adults with various developmental disabilities. Throughout my work this semester, I have often wondered what supports my clients received in their early years and how more or less support may have affected their own development.
In her article, Jonsdottir offers a useful analysis of the underlying foundations for music therapy in early intervention. For any aspiring music therapist looking to work with this population, a solid and structured framework is presented here. She lays out the framework and main premises for early intervention which center around the crucial importance of early relationships and their effects on internal and external experiences.
There has been much research to support music as an intervention for premature or at-risk infants. In a study by Nicholson, Berthelson, Williams, and Bradley (2008), the effectiveness of music therapy interventions on 358 parents and their children was examined. According to the results of this study, the music therapy interventions "enhance children's behavioral, social, and communicational skills and promote positive parenting" (p. 234). This study, done over a ten week period, provides a positive outlook for music therapy in early intervention.
Simply stated, "The act of singing is one of the earliest and most common forms of musical interaction between parents and their children" (Nicholson, Berthelsen,, Abad, Williams, & Bradley, 2008, p. 227). It has long been common sense that the human voice has a direct effect on the growth and development of an infant. An example of this is the natural act of a mother singing to her unborn child and crooning a lullaby to her newborn as she drifts off to sleep.
What I found most striking in Jonsdottir's article, was her stance on how the relationships between the therapists, the caretakers, the children and the music are all very much interrelated. Each element directly and indirectly affects all the others. As I become a music therapist and develop my own theory, my foundations strongly lie in relational psychology. I truly believe that everything in life is relational and that we are all a product of internal and external related interactions. That being said, I believe that our earliest relationships mold and shape or development in the future. It is generally agreed on by attachment theorists that, "developing a secure parent-infant attachment requires the presence of a responsive and available primary caregiver who can respond sensitively to her infant" (O'Gorman, 2007, p. 101). The role of a music therapist is to bring caregivers to this awareness through musical interventions while demonstrating that natural music making has a profound effect on the child's development.
My only criticism of Jonsdottir's article is that I was expecting to read more about the musical interventions that take place in early intervention work. I am extremely interested in this subject yet I have not yet been able to witness work in this area. In the future, I would love to hear from others on how this work is being implemented in the field.
References
Jonsdottir, Valgerður (2002). Musicking in Early Intervention: Early Intervention as a Framework for Music Therapy with Caretakers and their Special-Needs Infants [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved Nov.6, 2008, from http://www.voices.no/mainussues/Voices2(2)jonsdottir.html.
Nicholson, J., Berthelsen, D., Abad, V., Williams, K., & Bradley, J. (2008, March). Impact of music therapy to promote positive parenting and child development. Journal of Health Psychology, 13(2), 226-238.
O'Gorman, S. (2007, June). Infant-Directed Singing in Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 28(2), 100-108.