Proceedings, Oxford, UK (2002) - World Federation of Music Therapy

history of psychiatric disorder (Sidebotham, Golding & The ALSPAC
Study team). While child maltreatment knows no economic and social
boundaries, parental poverty is a risk factor for physical abuse however is
not a risk factor for any greater incidence of emotional abuse than occurs
in the general population (Jones & McCurdy, 1992).
Family intervention is a generic term used to define an intervention
process that targets family interaction patterns assumed to contribute to
the development and maintenance of disturbances in the child’s
functioning (Sanders & Markie-Dadds, 1996). Intervention is based on
the assumption that many child behaviour problems arise at least in part
because of disturbances in parent-child relationships that can be mediated
by better support and parenting education.
In the Sing & Grow program parents and children aged 0 – 3 years are
provided with opportunities to participate in a 10 week music therapy
program aimed at offering musical interaction to assist in the
development of the child’s cognitive structures, physical co-ordination
and emotional expression. The programme aims to deepen the bonding
between parent and child, and increase appropriate interactions between
parent and child. Sessions may be conducted within a Playgroup setting
or other community centre context.
Research has indicated that music presented to families in a group setting
can support them in developing skills that enhance parent-child
relationships (Vlismas & Bowes,1999, Oldfield, 1995, Oldfield,1999,
Oldfield & Bunce, 2001; Shoemark, 1996; Hibben,1992). Using music to
engage a parent and child to help enhance difficult relationships could
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