23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

come into action. At this point, with the child attentive
and ready to explore his surrondings, we can perform
an intervention based on perception by the child of his
own body and of movement, in accordance with the
median line of his body.
Visual training, on the other hand, consists of activities
aimed at detecting the existence of residual vision in the
child, with the objective of stimulating his impulse to
look. In this case too, music, use as described above,
can foster an attentiveness in listening, which is an
essential prelude to low vision training.
The case of P. **)
This little boy, now three years old, was born in the 36th
week of pregnancy; there was a twin, who died. He
suffered asphyxia of the new born and cerebropathy,
which damaged the optic nerve. His papilla is pale and
there is nystagmus. The low vision trainer is able to
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stimulate him in a half-dark room or in a natural light,
placing the objects at a distance of 20 to 40-50 cm. from
him so as not to lose his attention. He is not able to take
hold of anything, but he tries to move his arm in the
direction of the light. His motor diagnosis is a dystonic
tetraparesis, more hypertonic in activity; when he is
inactive his hypotone is more evident. This lovely child
cannot change position autonomously but depends
entirely on other people. He is fed mainly by his mother
and we show her how to perform orofacial therapy
before feeding him. He cannot sit alone without help, but
we think the sitting position is important for him, also so
that he can be in a suitable position for communication
and so as not to be always lying on the floor. It is
therefore important to stimulate and motivate him to sit
with better symmetrical control of his back and head.
In october 1992, P. stayed at the Fondazione Robert
Hollman with his mother for two weeks, during which
he took part in two music therapy sessions.