Resources & references

Music therapists at the Montreal Children's Hospital explain how they use musical experiences to help babies, children, and adolscents with various needs express emotions, self-regulate, enhance relaxation, build social skills, and improve motor skills.

Charlotte Stewart, a board-certified music therapist, sings a hello song to a child during an individual music therapy session, helping the child develop their verbal communication skills through singing.

Watch how music therapist Belinda Burns works with Hudson, a young boy with developmental delays.

Click here to watch a video of Hudson's progress three years later.

Watch how music therapist Belinda Burns works with Hudson, a young boy with developmental delays.

Click here to watch a video of Hudson's music therapy treatment three years prior.

Music therapy can uniquely help severely injured children and their families deal with the events surrounding an accident and its aftermath. The use of music therapy in treating these families on a pediatric service is described and illustrated with a fracture patient and a burn patient

Read an article exploring four case studies of music therapy with young children who had intellectual disabilities and complex needs. The music therapy sessions were compared to toy-play sessions, led by the same therapist, and results indicated that both conditions were similar in the quantity of communicative interactions, but that the music therapy communicative attempts displayed more interpersonal interactions.

Read a scoping review on musical interaction in young people with severe or profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Findings highlight six categories of promising components of musical interaction and suggest that musical activities, including music therapy, have positive benefits in a number of domains for this population.

This research article investigates a music therapy program that uses music improvisation to enhance emotional wellbeing and social skills among elementary school students displaying behaviour challenges.

Read about a group music therapy program for Ukrainian children seeking refuge in Spain. This article explores the use of music therapy experiences to enhance social integration, process trauma, and improve quality of life among participants.

Music therapist Tatia Zarate describes in Spanish how music therapy supports child development and families. Segments of music therapy sessions are featured.

This book is available in an official English edition by the Publisher.

This book, written by music therapist Guylaine Vaillancourt, is divided in two parts. This book is intended to make parents, educators and care-givers aware of how music and music therapy can benefit children. It also explains how the purposeful use of music by music therapy professionals can restore, maintain or enhance physical and psychological well-being of children.

See the record of the book Music, Music Therapy and Child Development.

Read an article exploring the neurophysiological synchrony between children with severe physical disabilities and their parents during music therapy sessions. Findings suggest that music therapy may facilitate cognitive-emotional connections between these non-speaking children and their caregivers.