Using a Music Therapy Collaborative Consultative Approach - World ...

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(Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) and Individual
Education Program (IEP) objectives were addressed within the context of regularly occurring
classroom activities and routines. Teachers were trained in using routine-based interventions
(McWilliam, 1996), and a combination of curricular modifications, embedded learning
opportunities, and specialized instruction to address individualized learning objectives
(Sandall & Schwartz, 2002). All teachers had prior experience and expertise with young
children with autism, and attended in-services on autism held by the investigator of the
“Center Based Early Intervention Demonstration Project for Young Children with Autism.”
None of them had used music therapy interventions prior to the study. The composition of
each of the three experimental groups is summarized in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1. Participant composition of experimental groups.
Participant type Experiment I
n
Target children
Peers with and without
disabilities
Teachers
Parent/Caregiver
2
13
5
2
Experiment II
n
1
--
1
Experiment III
n
As described in the literature, songs are used by a wide range of professions working
with preschoolers with and without disabilities to address academic, social, language and
communication skills, as well as motor skills, and to express emotions (e.g., Enoch, 2002;
Furman, 2001; Humpal, 1998). At the FPG childcare program, well-known children songs
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4
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6
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