Music Therapy in Special Schools: The Assessment of the Quality of Relationship

Abstract

This qualitative scientific study – by means of analysing recorded therapeutic sessions with children with autism or mental disability in a special school – examines the process of creating a relationship between the therapist and the child in the context of music-therapeutic moments. The analysis of therapeutic moments was carried out through the AQR-instrument  (Assessment of the Quality of Relationship) and led to a) the evaluation of the quality of relationship between the therapist and the child with autism or mental disability during therapy, b) the evaluation of the correspondence of the therapeutic intervention to each child’s developmental level (modus), and c) the appreciation of the differentiation in the relationship between the therapist and the child with autism or mental disability, as well as the size of that differentiation.  Regardless of the pathology, it was observed that music therapy with children is advisable when the child shows disorders in his/her emotional development and in the ability to create a relationship. Music-therapeutic interventions that use the child itself as a starting point and follow the concept of elemental music, succeed in mobilising children’s healthy part and promote their development, in many areas. Research data are based on the author’s dissertation thesis: “Music therapy for children with psychological disorders in special education” (Fragkouli 2012).