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How musical engagement promotes well-being in education contexts: The case of a young man with profound and multiple disabilities

MCFERRAN, Katrina S
SHOEMARK, Helen
2013

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Students with profound intellectual disabilities disorders (IDDs) have the right to participate in educational opportunities that recognize their unique resources and needs, as do all children. Because of their specific communication challenges, positive relationships with attentive communication partners are critical for success. In fact, the power of positive relationships in schools is recognized to be connected to student well-being more broadly. This article examines the case of one young man with profound IDD and his relationship with his music therapist using a duo-ethnographic informed paradigmatic case study. Video analysis based on multi-voice perspectives is used to generate hermeneutic phenome- nological findings to closely examine the relationship between a young man with profound IDD and a music therapist. The voices of four allied health researchers were also gathered to inform the authors’ construction of an informed commentary on the phenomenon. The results suggest that the essence lay in a combination of attentive, responsive and creative being with the other person over time. Four principles of musical engagement were identified in the video footage as critical to the meaningful relationships through music: the music therapist listens; the music therapist takes responsibility for structure; spontaneous initiation is sought from the young person; and the relationship is built over time. These concepts are contextualized within a discussion of student well-being that is underpinned by positive relationships and leads to students achieving their full potential within diverse school contexts.

Risks to Client Confidentiality when Communicating Health Information to Blind and Partially Sighted Persons

THURSTON, M
THURSTON, A
2013

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Purpose: This research was carried out to give a more accurate picture of the particular needs of the blind and partially sighted people living in Scotland. It explores the risks to client confidentiality if information is not provided in accessible formats.

 

Method: Data were gathered from a survey of 228 blind and partially sighted persons in 15 Health Authorities across Scotland. The survey reported NHS clients’ experiences of receiving health information in accessible reading formats.

 

Results: The data indicated that about 90% of blind and partially sighted persons did not receive communications from various NHS health departments in a format that they could read by themselves.

 

Conclusions: The implications for client privacy, confidentiality and the wider impact on life and healthcare have been highlighted. The implications for professional ethical medical practice and for public policy are discussed, and recommendations for improved practice are made.

Factors related to Recovery and Relapse in Persons with Stuttering Following Treatment: A Preliminary Study

ARYA, P
GEETHA, Y V
2013

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Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate and compare factors related to recovery and relapse outcomes after treatment, among adults with stuttering.

 

Method: The participants were 24 adults who underwent fluency therapy and reported for follow-up 6 months after cessation of treatment. Pre, immediate post and 6-months post-treatment follow-up evaluations were done using stuttering severity instrument SSI-3. On the basis of total scores and severity obtained, participants were then grouped as either recovered or relapsed persons with stuttering. A questionnaire was administered to obtain their ratings for the different domains of factors that contributed to treatment outcomes.

 

Results: A significant difference was found between both the groups with respect to factors contributing to recovery and relapse. The four domains which were found to be more responsible for treatment outcomes in persons with stuttering were: individual related, therapy related, environment related, and behaviour and personality related factors.

 

Conclusion: The study was conducted with fewer participants, and it is possible that there could be many other pre-treatment and post-treatment factors such as attitude, anxiety, and speech naturalness which may influence the treatment outcomes in persons with stuttering. Future research should include these other factors.

Music as the Means to Stimulate Novelty and Challenge Seeking in Persons with Intellectual Disability

SOLTANI, A
ROSLAN, S
ABDULLAH, M C
JAN, C C
2013

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Purpose: The main aim of the study was to determine whether challenge seeking behaviour could be increased by stimulating persons with intellectual disability with music. The intention was also to evaluate whether the participants would attempt to seek challenges when they felt bored with a music experience.

 

Method: Thirty adolescents and young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability were randomly selected to take part in a repeated-measure experimental design, under three different conditions. In the first condition, the participants were provided adequate challenges through teaching fundamental musical skills. In the second condition, no optimal challenge was provided, and in the third condition, using special strategies, the participants were stimulated to look for novelty and challenge through involvement in creative musical tasks. Level of innovation, as an index of challenge seeking, was measured during the 8 minutes of free choice interval at the end of each condition.

 

Results: Using Friedman’s ANOVA and Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the findings showed that the low and statistically similar levels of challenge seeking behaviour in conditions 1 and 2 significantly increased to a high level in condition 3. It confirmed that participants with intellectual disability are capable of demonstrating challenge seeking behaviour if they are stimulated to do so. The results also confirmed that the tendency to demonstrate challenge seeking behaviour during a boring musical situation was low.

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