Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

elationship and opportunities for emotional expression were the main therapeutic
aims and, post-treatment, it was found that the children improved in all three outcome
areas. These results support the continuation of this research with a larger sample.
Music therapy has been shown to be effective in experimental studies with children
and adolescents. However, there is little empirical research knowledge about what
elements of music therapy influence its effectiveness in clinical practice. Gold,
Wigram and Voracek’s study (2007b) of individual music therapy with 75 children
and adolescents and 15 music therapists, showed that the childrens’ symptoms
showed greater improvement when music therapy was limited to discipline-specific
music therapy techniques and did not include other media such as play therapy
elements.
Horton (2005) shows that a group music therapy intervention with female adolescents
in an educational treatment centre involving stepping, which is described as a series
of body percussive movements such as foot-stomping and hand-clapping, paired with
chanting or singing, significantly increases group cohesion. The adolescents who took
part were identified as being at risk of dropping out of school and were engaged in
violent and risky sexual behaviours. The results from this study suggest that stepping
can promote positive social behaviours in adolescent youth 12 .
A study by Boussicaut (2003) of students with behavioural difficulties, set out to see
if the use of tokens as rewards, to reinforce students demonstrating appropriate
behaviours during music therapy sessions, would decrease behavioural problems.
From the school's behaviour data sheet it was shown that the group who had received
tokens showed some improvement on social behaviours but there was no significant
difference between groups in the reduction of inappropriate behaviour.
An interesting study was reported by Chong and Kim (2010). It examined how an
after-school education-oriented music therapy programme impacted on students’
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"# !Stepping was trialled by Long (2007) with an original rhythm-based scheme to
improve reading amongst low-ability readers in primary schools. This followed
research that linked a child’s sense of rhythm to their reading ability. Some children
at primary school were taught to clap or stamp their feet in time to a simple piece of
music for ten minutes a week and this improved their level of reading comprehension.
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