Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

acquire musical skill. ‘First and foremost the therapist improvises music which
accepts and meets the child’s emotional state, while also matching, accompanying,
and enhancing how the child is expressing it’ (p.234). In one article they use a case
study of a brain-injured sixteen-year old girl to describe their work. Without knowing
much about the teenager’s background, the two therapists work together with her and
are specifically aware of the tempo of the music. They describe the development of
the relationship between the client and her music and how her compulsive fast
beating slows down as she gains control and can work rhythmically with the
therapist. Her ‘consolidation in musical participation [leads to] an intimately real
sense, consolidation of self’ (ibid. p.248). After twelve sessions it was noted that the
girl’s disruptive behaviour had decreased, her mood seemed lighter and she had a
greater sense of self and purpose.
Strange (1999) describes his client-centred approach using three case studies to
explain how emotionally disturbed students with moderate learning disabilities should
be able to choose how to use music therapy. He argues that the therapist needs to
accept and support unforeseen developments, to let the therapy take its course and not
impose his or her own direction. ‘Many clients have already experienced rejection
and have difficulties which increase the likelihood of further rejection. To insist on a
way of working which these clients find threatening can endanger the whole
therapeutic relationship’ (p.135). Many young people at risk of underachievement or
exclusion have known rejection and failure, which supports the case for a studentcentred
approach to their therapy, even when there are specific developmental aims
which the therapist might hold in mind.
McFerran and Stephenson (2006) argue the case for more evidence-based practice in
special education, approaching the topic as a music therapist and a special education
academic respectively. McFerran presents the importance of qualitative research and
wealth of research studies that have been carried out in special education and cites,
among others, Elefant and Wigram, 2005; Perry, 2003; and Rickson, 2003. However,
from a scientific point of view there is as yet not enough evidence to prove that music
therapy can help students with learning disabilities to achieve educational goals and
Stephenson writes, ‘At this point, the use of music therapy as an educational
intervention has support only from case studies: well designed quantitative studies are
needed’ (McFerran and Stephenson, 2006, p.125). As a response to their different
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