Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

playful. Talking played an important part in every session and, in her interview, said:
“It’s alright actually. The first time I did it I was a bit scared but ever since now it’s
like ok, part of me, it’s real cool…She understands you and you can talk to her”
(appendix 7.1.20, p.358).
Clare talked readily about the impact of music therapy and said that it made her feel
special, “Like cos all my friends all don’t do it, its different for me. Actually like do
drumming and that stuff and try new things, it feels good” (appendix 7.1.20, p.358).
Although she was struggling with an extreme situation at home, Clare was committed
to attending music therapy which was something that the quantitative data did not
reflect.
She continued with music therapy after the rest of her group (A) had finished, as
reported in 6.1.2. Her scores showed that she was an outlier in the change scores for
the inventory of disruptive behaviour (BDBI) because she reported a huge increase in
score, +23, which was more than three times the next highest score (figure 6.2.3.1). In
the tests for correlation between the students’ change in BDBI scores and the
recorded number of incidents at school (figure 6.2.3.4) her results were not
significantly related. However, there was one major incident for which Clare was
excluded. This probably led her to score herself very highly in the questionnaire
because her perception was that she was very badly behaved.
Both her pre- and post-music therapy T scores were average according to the Beck
clinical range for the self-concept and anxiety inventories. This is not surprising as
Clare had been going through very difficult times and was used to keeping a lid on
her emotions. She often talked about feeling numb, even when she had hurt herself,
which suggests that she did not dare to feel anything and it was safer for her not to
know how she felt. It was obvious that she was not going to reveal more in
questionnaires.
The teachers’ scores, on the other hand, showed that her emotional well-being had
improved. Although one teacher scored a total decrease of just one point, the other
two were more convincing with a change score of +52. These two were both
instructors who took her out on activities, which indicates that Clare was able to
behave better outside school than in lessons and, as they spent time with her in this
! #++!