Child musical development and music therapy assessment.

Background:

Music therapy literature informs us that music-centered experiences are used in assessment procedures for screening children’s developmental stages and for finding correspondences between musical and non-musical areas (Bruscia, 1987, Gainza, 1982; Grant, 1995; Lazo, 2005; Sabbatella, 2003; 2012; Sabbatella&Lazo, 2008;Wigram, 1995,). The authors of this poster have designed a musical assessment procedure for children diagnosed with developmental disorders (aged 3-6 years-old), called the Music Therapy Assessment Protocol.

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MUSIC-THERAPY WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Music Therapy has been extensively applied to children at different ages and clinical diagnosis (Olfield, 2008; Schwartz, 2008; Wigram & de Backer, 1999). Music Therapy in Early Intervention is provided to new-born babies, toddler, early childhood and children between the ages of 0–6 years- old who are at risk of developing a handicapping condition or other special need that may affect their development.

The acquisition of musical behavior depends upon many aspects of personality, including an innate sensory-motor-auditory ability or an early interest in sound, tunes and rhythms (Oswald, 1973)

Human beings are musical by nature. Normal fetuses respond to sound from the thirty- three weeks’ gestation and most respond at twenty-seven weeks (Gerhardt & Abrams, 2000).

Some authors suggest that maternal background noise and the fetal sound-environment during prenatal development could influence the first patterns of communication and bonding between mother and baby, predisposition for musical engagement, musical memory or innate musical competencies (Benenzon, 1971; Fridman, 1974; Treub, 2001; 2006).

Early development of language is connected to musical patterns. The brain processing of language and singing share neural connections, and the primary auditory cortex responds similarly to speech and music (Zatorre et al., 1992).

Newborns respond to music and aural stimulation, and are able to recognize familiar tunes and songs and distinguish between the voice of his/her parents and any other voice. The first patterns of communication and bonding between mother and baby are reinforced by maternal singing, Baby-talk, Infant-direct speech and lullabies (Treub, 2006).

The way in which people use music in everyday life, and the kinds of music they listen to, sing and play are result of learning, social interaction and personal characteristics. People create a relationship with the music, and there is a connection between music and the way people look at and present themselves (Benenzon, 1971; Gainza, 1997; Ruud, 1998).

In this process, people develop an image of themselves as different from other people and the world around them. The music itself contributes to the construction of self-identity, and the influence of music on self-identity develops a set of individualized musical characteristics so called musical identity (Sabbatella, 2007).