Music therapy with hospitalized infants—the art and science of communicative musicality

Abstract

Infants seek contingent, companionable interactions with others. Infants in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), while receiving care that optimizes their chances of survival, often do not have the kind of interactions that are optimal for their social development. Live music therapy (MT) with infants is an intervention that aims for contingent, social interaction between therapist and infant. This study, with a limited numbers of infants, examined the effectiveness of an MT intervention in the NICU at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Two groups of late pre-term and full-term infants were recruited to the study; one was given MT and the other was not. A healthy group of infants not given MT served as an additional control. The effect of MT was indexed using two measures reflecting infant social engagement: the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant (NAPI) and the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB). Results suggest that the MT intervention used at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne supports infants' neurobehavioral development. In particular, hospitalized infants who received MT were better able to maintain self-regulation during social interaction with an adult, were less irritable and cried less, and were more positive in their response to adult handling, when compared with infants who did not receive the intervention. These are important prerequisites for social interaction and development. Further and larger scale research using MT with this population is indicated.

Use of Music During Physical Therapy Intervention in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…These studies show that music decreases heart rate [21][22][23][24][25] and increases oxygen saturation 2,[26][27][28][29] , and alteration of energy consumption and behavioral variables 4,21,26 confirming data from this study. In these articles 2,4,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] there is a concern that the unfavorable environment of the NICU may compound a morbidity and the modification of the environment with the addition of music could minimize the iatrogenic effects.…”

“…In these articles 2,4,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] there is a concern that the unfavorable environment of the NICU may compound a morbidity and the modification of the environment with the addition of music could minimize the iatrogenic effects.…”

Music Therapy Intervention for the Mother-Preterm Infant Dyad: Evidence from a Case Study in a Brazilian NICU

“…In particular, live music interventions with infant-contingent singing promoted the infant's self-regulation and development (Haslbeck, 2014;Malloch et al, 2012;Shoemark, 2011). Besides music therapy intervention being with live singing, the MUSIP involved the mother's singing.…”

“…These interventions can employ a receptive approach with recorded sounds and music (Alipour et al, 2013;Standley et al, 2010), or an active approach through live music and singing (Ettenberger et al, 2014;Haslbeck, 2014;Loewy et al, 2013;Malloch et al, 2012;Ullsten et al, 2016).…”

“…Among the music therapy interventions, we highlight those that employ live contingent or infant-directed singing with lullabies, parents' preferred songs and improvised singing (Malloch et al, 2012;Shoemark, 2011;Haslbeck, 2014;Loewy, 2015;Ullsten et al, 2016). For example, Haslbeck (2014) investigated the interactive potential of Creative Music Therapy (CMT, Nordoff & Robbins, 1977) on 18 preterm infants.…”