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

daily life?
She had difficulty in keeping her attention on luminous,
contrasted stimulation; she was not interested in
objects, and did not look at people, not even her mother.
While sitting she rocked herself continually as a
stereotypie: left to herself she would not take up another
position. Lying on the floor, she was continually in
movement, knocking her arms and legs on the ground
without coordination. Up to now she was never
accepted staying in a prone position, not even on her
mother's body. When we saw this child, so lacking in
concentration, and her mother, who talked and sang to
her continually to try and attract her attention, we felt
that we were not prepared to be restricted by the
diagnosis she had been given; we wanted to get to know
her independently of her pathology. So we decided to
use her four-week stay at the Fondazione Robert
Hollman to help the little girl to feel the pleasure of
keeping still in the prone position (calma motoria), and
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later to harmonize the coordination of her movements
so that she might be more willing and more motivated to
be attentive; and also to improve the relationship
between mother and child as well as the child and the
world around her.
We put these ideas into practice during therapy on the
swing and, mainly, during music therapy, when the child
lay on the grand piano.
The results achieved by the child and her mother were
extremely satisfactory and, four months after leaving
the Fondazione Robert Hollman, the mother has
told us that her daughter looks attentive when people
are talking, and tries to look them in the face, she takes
up other positions, she is calm and happy.
The latest news is that the little girl is now moving
around on her feet, holding on to the forniture. It was a
very emotional moment for us, to hear this mother say
that her daughter E. learned to like life during her stay in