Date of Award

1-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of the Arts

Department/Program

John J. Cali School of Music

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Brian Abrams

Committee Member

John Carpente

Committee Member

Amy Clarkson

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of improvisational music therapy for a client with Williams Syndrome (WS). The study employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess the quality of attention of a client with WS during improvisational music therapy. The participant of this study was a teenage boy with Williams Syndrome who received music therapy at the Rebecca Center for Music Therapy and Molloy College in New York. The study analyzed the participant’s attention behaviors in musical-play by reviewing video recordings that had been made of the client’s therapy sessions at the Rebecca Center. To analyze the quantitative data, this study measured the client’s attention behaviors by using select dimensions (focusing on musical attention) of the Individual Music-Centered Assessment Profile for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (IMCAP-ND; Carpente, 2013). These ratings were examined for directionality of change over the course of five therapy sessions by using a linear regression analysis. For the qualitative analysis, video recordings were reviewed to determine separately the effects of improvisational therapy treatment on the client over the five sessions. The study described the quality of attention based on the linear regression graphs and notes about the sessions, including how the music therapist and client played music interactively, how the client improved, and what the client’s behavior meant.

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