Lullabies and Play songs: Theoretical Considerations for an Early Attachment Music Therapy Intervention through Parental Singing for Developmentally At-Risk Infants

Abstract

Following an overview of the literature on the musical predispositions of the newborn and on the development of attachment, this article elaborates a theoretical rationale on which is proposed a model of early intervention with parental singing. The author first looks at the links between regulation of affect and attachment, also taking a look attachment pathologies and how they inform us about healthy attachment. Then, the functions of Infant-directed speech (langage parental), and also by extension, Infant-directed singing (chant parental) are looked at in terms of their developmental impacts over the baby's regulation of affect. The suggested music therapy program is presented as a clinical articulation of a usually natural behaviour within parent-child dyad. Considering the importance of early intervention in order to prevent the crystallisation of dysfunction or its contamination over the whole development of the young child, this intervention model aims at recreating, preferentially with the parent's participation, the favorable relational conditions for a resumption or a continuation of the developmental sequence for the baby whose attachment is at risk because of endogenous or environmental reasons.