by Kimberly Woodman The practice of family-based music therapy has generally been directed toward families of individuals with special needs, focusing on both the needs of the indivudal and the family context/needs of the parents. There is support within the literature for treating individuals within the family context, with one meta-analysis offering evidence that care provided within the family context offers a range of benefits for the family as a whole as well as for individual family members (Dunst, Trivette, & Hamby, 2007), suggesting that it may be of value to expand access to these ..read more

By Kimberly Woodman There has been a substantial amount of research conducted within the last 20 years relating to the use of music within the NICU context, both by music therapists and other medical professionals. Researchers have shown that music may be beneficial for decreasing stress symptoms, crying, and the length of NICU stays. Furthermore, music may be used to increase vital signs, coordinate sucking and feeding behaviors, and weight gain. These outcomes indicate that music therapy may be an incredibly beneficial intervention for premature infants. Researchers have also sought to ident ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/MTRB_23_Kern-Tague-Oct-11-2017-11-1-17-edit.mp3 Dr. Petra Kern, owner of Music Therapy Consulting, is adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Louisville and Editor-in-Chief of the online magazine imagine. She is a former WFMT President, currently serves on CBMT’s Board of Directors, and is a recipient of AMTA’s Research/Publications award. Dr. Daniel Tague is Assistant Professor and Chair of Music Therapy at Southern Methodist University. With experience as a teacher, clinician, blogger and research ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/MTRB_20_RonnaKaplan-5-24-17EDIT.mp3 Chair of the Center for Music Therapy since 2004 and a Music Therapist at The Music Settlement (TMS) since 1988, Ronna Kaplan has served clients ranging from premature infants to adults through 103 years-of-age with varied disabilities and levels of functioning. Her special interests are young children and individuals with diagnoses on the autism spectrum, language delays and/or problems in the area of social skills, as well as teen parents or those with mental illness. She was instrumental ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MTRB_20_12-13-16AnnetteWhiteheadPleauxEDIT.mp3 Having worked in music therapy for 24 years, Annette Whitehead-Pleaux is an Adjunct Professor at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana. Her clinical work is currently focuses on pediatric burn and orthopedic populations at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Boston. There she provides clinical services that focus on pain management, anxiety management, reduction in trauma symptoms, body image, improving fine and gross motor skills, and quality of life issues. In addition to her clin ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/MTRB_22_12-13-16RobertGroene.mp3 Robert Groene is an Associate Professor and the Director of Music Therapy at UMKC. He received his BS, MA, and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is a past professor at The University of Iowa and Wartburg College. Dr. Groene is an active teacher researcher, clinician and research editorial board member in local, regional, national, and international venues. He was a past nominee for President-Elect of the American Music Therapy Association, Past President of the AMTA Midwestern Re ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MTRB_18_10-24-16-viega.mp3 Michael Viega, Ph.D., LCAT, MT-BC, is an Assistant Professor of music therapy at the State University of New York (SUNY), New Paltz and a Fellow in the Association of Music and Imagery. He has published and presented on a wide range of topics such as Hip Hop and music therapy (which can be found in a 2016 edition of Music Therapy Perspectives), arts-based research methodologies, therapeutic songwriting, and adverse childhood experiences and adolescent development. He serv ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MTRB_19_11-2-16_JoyAllen.mp3 Joy Allen, PhD, MT-BC is an accomplished clinician, researcher, and educator. She has extensive experience working with medical patients where she focuses on psychological health, pain management, and the family system. She is particularly passionate about working with individuals and families facing chronic illnesses, including cancer. Her current research interests include quantitative analysis of the effects of music therapy on the psychological health of medical patients, Guided Imagery & Mu ..read more

http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/MTRB_17_09-6-16VarvaraPasiali.mp3 Varvara Pasiali, PhD, MT-BC, is an associate professor of music therapy at Queens University of Charlotte. She completed her Master’s in music therapy at the University of Kansas and her doctorate at Michigan State. Her research interests include early intervention, prevention, resilience, and parent-child attachment/reciprocity. Dr. Pasiali is a regular presenter at conferences and has published in various journals. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Music Therapy, and Ap ..read more

Sallet and Jentschke (2015) studied the relationship between language acquisition and music perception in children with specific language impairments (SLI). While this topic has been studied many times before, Sallet and Jentschke explored a much younger age than has previously been studied (four- and five-year-olds). Twenty-nine children with SLI were recruited from a local kindergarten in Germany. Additional recruitments were made from other schools to create two control groups. One group controlled for comparable age while the other controlled for comparable language ski ..read more