Resources & references

This video exposes a case study of a child who was born without eyes and has always feared medical procedures. She is enrolled in music therapy at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s to decrease her anxiety.

 Music therapy improves the health of premature babies and boosts parental bonding

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. 
 

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
 

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to examine current literature in developmental psychology in order to discuss how music therapy can foster resilience in early childhood. Music therapy can help prepare young children and their families for handling adversity, increase parental sensitivity, and create multiple opportunities for families to develop adaptive interpersonal interaction patterns.

This article provides a rationale as to why musical interaction supported by a qualified music therapist can offer a potential pathway for improved attachment between the parent and infant. Two strong trends are revealed: the international breadth of the developing work by music therapists within family-centred contexts of practice, especially work with infants and their parents in the early years; and the use of theoretical principles of communicative musicality (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2008) combined with knowledge of early musical skills.

This article is available in French full-text translation. 
 

One of the few controlled researches that focus on parental bonding and music therapy.

Music therapists working with families address relationship and interpersonal communication issues; this research documents how music therapy supports mutuality and reciprocity in parent-child interactions.
 

The COVID-19 pandemic created a major transformation in the delivery of music therapy services worldwide as they moved online. Parents and their children with visual impairment participated in online music therapy sessions. Parents indicated that the programme was a valuable family resource that supported bonding and interaction. A discussion of the findings is followed by implications for practice.

This article describes how musical interaction can contribute to bonding and early interaction for children with visual impairments (aged 1–4 years) and their caregivers, who participated in music therapy sessions over 10 weeks. This article discusses the findings in the broader perspective of disability studies and community music therapy, and argues that music therapy promotes positive interactions and empowerment of children with visual impairment and their caregivers.