Musical Play as Therapy in an Early Intervention Programme

Effective therapeutic use of music for very young children with multi-system developmental disabilities involves engaging them and their parents/caregivers in musical play activities that can regulate the children’s (and parents’) physiological systems, strengthen parent-child relationships, and open children’s minds to physical, social emotional and intellectual learning and development; both in the context of music therapy and in response to goals set by a multi-disciplinary team. This article, based on a presentation given at the ISME conference in Greece in 2012, describes the therapy programmes at the Champion Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand and presents four case studies designed to illustrate the type and range of activities that have been shown to be effective over twenty years of experience. They show how when music practitioners follow the child’s lead, and draw the parents into the interaction as full partners, the well-being of children is enhanced and their parents are encouraged to engage in similar activities at home, thereby extending music’s therapeutic reach and effectiveness.