Analysing change in music therapy interactions of children with communication difficulties.

ABSTRACT: Music therapy has been found to improve communicative behaviours and joint attention in children with autism, but it is unclear what in the music therapy sessions drives those changes. We developed an annotation protocol and tools to accumulate large datasets of music therapy, for analysis of interaction dynamics. Analysis of video recordings of improvisational music therapy sessions focused on simple, unambiguous individual and shared behaviours: movement and facing behaviours, rhythmic activity and musical structures and the relationships between them. To test the feasibility of the protocol, early and late sessions of five client-therapist pairs were annotated and analysed to track changes in behaviours. To assess the reliability and validity of the protocol, inter-rater reliability of

SUBMITTER: Spiro N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4843612 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature