Improvised music to support Intensive Interaction for children with complex needs: A feasibility study of brief adjunctive music therapy

Abstract

This study investigates Triadic Support of Interaction by Improvisation, an application of music therapy as a brief adjunctive therapy for children with complex needs who are receiving Intensive Interaction. A small randomised controlled trial measured changes in child-support worker interaction between the 4th and the 12th of 12 weekly sessions of Intensive Interaction. In each of two special schools, a control group of four children with complex needs received Intensive Interaction only and an experimental group of four children additionally received improvised music in sessions 5 through 8. Experienced Speech and Language Therapists made blind assessments from video recordings of sessions 4 and 12 using an adaptation of an instrument developed by a National Health Service learning disability service for tracking progress in Intensive Interaction. The experimental group at one research site showed significantly enhanced interaction (p = 0.02). This offers provisional proof of concept, provided environmental factors identified as impacting results at the other site can be resolved in future studies.