Improvised Music to Enhance Intensive Interaction Version 1

Summary

The project will investigate the effectiveness of a specialised musical-clinical approach used as an adjunct to an established non-musical intervention in the enhancement of interpersonal interaction.

6 school pupils with profound disability will be randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. The control group will receive only Intensive Interaction for 16 sessions. The experimental group will receive four sessions of Intensive Interaction, followed by twelve sessions of Intensive Interaction plus improvised music. Music therapists will follow a flexible manual written to ensure that their music supports the interaction between pupil and learning support assistant (LSA) without direct social interaction with either.

Changes in capacity for interpersonal interaction will be assessed by a standardised assessment instrument, the Pre-Verbal Communication Schedule (PVCS), administered to both experimental and control groups before the 1st session and after the 16th session.

There will also be a qualitative process study of the experimental group conducted by video observation by the researchers involved.

The project is funded in equal shares by the Music Therapy Charity and Beacon Hill Academy.

Conditions

• Child Development Disorders, Specific
• Developmental Communication Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Intensive Interaction with Music

Intensive Interaction is a form of non-verbal communicative behaviour performed by a support worker to encourage and develop spontaneous communicative behaviour by the treatment subject, for which support workers are prepared by a speech and language therapist. The music in the intervention is live music improvised by a (UK) registered music therapist present in the room with treatment subject and support worker, who watches but does not participate socially in their interactions, and who develops musical input to encourage and enhance those interactions.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Intensive Interaction

Intensive Interaction is a form of non-verbal communicative behaviour performed by a support worker to encourage and develop spontaneous communicative behaviour by the treatment subject, for which support workers are prepared by a speech and language therapist.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Music Therapy Charity Ltd

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Anglia Ruskin University

  collaborator OTHER

• Beacon Hill Academy

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• John BA Strange, PhD · Voluntary research contract to Beacon Hill Academy

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-23

Primary Completion

2018-03-02

Completion

2018-06-01

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations