Valgerdur Jonsdottir's article, "Musicking in Early Intervention" (see Voices, Main Issues Vol.2 no.2, 2002.) captured my attention, as I too have an interest in children with special needs. The author provoked deeper insight and retrospection into my own experience; I immediately felt somewhat of a connection to the author.
My interest in special needs children stems from past experiences that precede my music therapy knowledge or experience. As a young adult just out of high school, my part-time job included supervising high school students engaged in a job-training program. This program included high school students with disabilities. I had no prior experience interacting with anyone with a disability, but soon grew to love these students. These adolescents did not let anything keep them down; they had a motivation that I found extremely inspiring. I witnessed them being challenged with some of the everyday tasks that I had taken for granted, but they never gave up and were determined to keep trying.
I completely fell in love with these students. They made my less than thrilling part-time job take on a new meaning. I began to think about future career choices that would involve working with more of these individuals. During this time, I also happened to be learning about music therapy and how it had been used with students just like mine.
Looking back, I realize that some of my curiosities were similar with the connections that Jonsdottir makes in her article. Jonsdottir was curious about early musical intervention and the interaction between child and caretaker: I wondered about the students' musical histories. I did not know anything about early intervention back then, but I had many questions about my students' upbringing and musical experiences they may have had. I wondered if any of them had musical inclinations. I also thought about the possibility of music therapy helping them now or earlier in their childhood. I had many questions, and the more experiences I had with my students, the more I was eager to learn about how music therapy had been used with similar students.
Working with these students ultimately gave me inspiration to go into the field of music therapy. Now that I am a music therapy student, I have had the opportunity to use my new music therapy skills with this population that I simply adore. My first semester of clinical experience I requested to work within a school setting. I was eager to finally put into motion what my former students had given me--the desire to use music with special education students, that I held so dearly to my heart.
My first inclinations were that I would love using music therapy in this setting -- I was right. I awaited my sessions with anticipation everyday, wondering who might do something remarkable that day. As I gained experience and confidence in my therapeutic abilities, amazing things began happening. One boy with autism began participating for the first time ever in music class. Another boy, whose diagnosis was functional mental disability, gained confidence and skill in reading and counting. Music was something they looked forward to everyday, and I like to think that I was partly responsible for that. These students, like my previous ones, inspired me. I wanted to become a better music therapist, for their sake.
Before I changed my educational path towards music therapy, these were only dreams that I had. I think that my first students that I supervised on the job were preparing me for what lay ahead. I had no plans of music therapy then; I did not even know what music therapy was. But as I learned about it, I was also gaining a love for these students, which has given me a new purpose in life.
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.
Dear Megan,
Thank you for a personal and a honest response to my article, "Musicking in Early Intervention." Since my graduation from the University of Kansas in 1986 I have worked with people with special needs as a private practitioner in Iceland. Their age is varied and presently my youngest student/client is two years old and the oldest one is 57 years old. Many of them have stayed with me for many many years. Our work together started perhaps as a request for improving gross or fine motor skills, improving expressive or receptive speech, developing attention span and preacademic skills, etc. When no more words could be learned, balance had be gained, fingers could be used independently, hands move together, cooperation had been reached, emotions had become balanced and the list goes one, there was something more that they had gained - namely musical enjoyment and appreciation.
As a music teacher and a music therapist I have been faced with the dilemma of allowing them the stay or discharging them when goals have been reached. I decided to allow them to stay as long as I could sense that they enjoyed musicking. This decision taught me that: music allows them to express themselves more fully than any other medium I know of, that their musical skills can be developed far beyond that which one thinks possible, that when given the opportunity to emerge many of them express an extraordinary musical talent, and when performing for others they express more honesty, and more musical enjoyment, than lets say I ever was capable of when performing for others. Their parents are also more proud of their children and more appreciative of their schooling than I could ever sense from parents of nonhandicapped children.
So truly, in my work I have been blessed. Throughout the years I have experienced with these students extraordinary motivation, determination, endurance and victories. They have trained me, revealed things about myself, and taught me what life is all about.
Dear Megan as I sit at my desk up here in Iceland, after sixteen years of practicing as a music therapist and faced with difficult decisions which regard my personal and professional future I share the same thoughts and feelings that you do. It is the love for these students that has given me purpose in life and I still want to become a better music therapist for their sake.
I wish you all the best in your future, and I know your students/clients are lucky to have met you.
With regards,
Valgerður