Music Therapy Today - World Federation of Music Therapy

Pecoraro Esperson, P. (2006) The pleasure of being “differently able”: Integration through music therapy in primary
schools. Music Therapy Today (Online) Vol.VII (2) 413-429. available at http://musictherapyworld.net
Amongst the musical and motor activities available we find the follow-
ing:
1. Activities which facilitate group integration. Games in circles which
do not require any adaptation to one’s own rhythm or that of others,
conducting a group or a peer or, conversely, allowing others to guide
us leaving them the responsibility of this guiding (the concept of
“guiding-following” is very important, the continuous passage from
one role to another may encourage the skills of expression and comprehension
of oneself and others, in children). Emotionally significant
relationships motivate children towards participation and commitment.
2. Activities aimed at developing perception and sensoriality. Sensitivity
can be developed by allowing one sense to prevail on the others (perceiving
by using only the sense of touch without looking, listening
with one’s eyes closed, observing in silence, etc.)
3. Activities which stimulate concentration and memory. That is the ability
to reproduce shapes, routes, movements, rhythms and/or sounds
subsequent to their perception.
4. Activities tied to cognitive development. Games that stimulate the
organization of logical thought, where elements of topology are
present (internal-external, opening-closure etc.), of evaluation (distance,
speed, etc.) of relativity (position in relation to…) of transposition
(from symbols to movement and vice-versa), of mathematical
logic (classification, series.), of verbal language (breathing, use of
nursery rhymes, songs using gestures)
These activities encourage the establishment of relationships with vari-
ous aspects of the personality of the child, with a global approach, and
facilitate interdisciplinary work. When utilized in a musical therapeutic
environment they can be a valid tool in helping to further the integration
of differently able children.Activities which improve fantasy and non-
verbal skills of expression. Children are helped to utilize and interchange
various languages: sound, vocal, graphic, corporeal mimicking, sounds
are transformed in movement and vice-versa, they are transformed in
drawings, in shapes, in colours.
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