Browsing by Author "Ojala, Sonja"

The aim of this study was to consider the use of music therapy methods in training social skills of students with special educational needs. The object of the study is music therapy used in school in teaching students with special educational needs. Previous studies have indicated that music therapy can be used to positively affect on an individual’s wellbeing and for example reduce psychopathology in youth and improve the attentiveness and motivation of students. Musical activity has been acknowledged as naturally interactional, and music therapy has been proven a promising means for solving problems related to social skills. This study was implemented as a systematic literature review aiming to search the methods of music therapy used in training different social skills domains and to consider their effectivity. Five international, peer reviewed articles published in English-speaking countries between years 2000 and 2015 were selected for the literature review. The interventions described in the chosen articles had been implemented in a school context with comprehensive school students with special needs. A music therapy professional took part in implementing each intervention. The results of the studies were analyzed and different domains of social skills were searched from them based on the divisions presented in previous literature. Furthermore, the music therapy methods used in the studies and the conclusions of their effectiveness presented in the articles were considered. This study indicates that the use of music therapy methods is linked to social skills and especially to externally observed social behavior. In the studies included, music therapy was linked to increasing social behavior and decreasing conduct problems. Compared to non-musical interventions, no significantly better results were achieved in social skills with music therapy, but there were less negative reactions and a stronger interactional connection between the student and the therapist in music therapy. Several different music therapy methods, in which the role of the student varied from active to receptive, were used in the studies. Individual differences between students must be considered when choosing the methods. In the future, it would be interesting to further investigate the impact of school as a place for implementing a music therapy intervention and the effectiveness of different methods in interventions.