Meaningful Interaction in a Local Context: Music Therapy with Children having Severe Functional Limitations including Autism (Keynote)

This keynote is based on a Ph.D. thesis on development of socially meaningful interaction in music therapy with children with very poor communication skills (Holck 2002). The aim was to identify some of the conditions, whereby actions can be understood as meaningful - that is, whereby the child and the music therapist can 'read' each other's actions as socially meaningful in the context. Theoretically the approach was informed by interaction theory and infant research, pointing out the importance of a joint context, understood as a joint interaction history as a basis for meaningful interaction. Through the method of qualitative video analysis (see Holck et al. 2005), “Interaction Themes” were identified, defined and delimitated as examples of joint interaction histories between children and their music therapists (Holck 2004). During the keynote, video recordings of Interaction Themes will be shown, followed by an explanation of the clinical significance of the common interaction history embodied in each Interaction Theme. On a more general level, a social-pragmatic point of view will be discussed in relation to the effect of music therapy with these children. Holck, U. (2002) ’Kommunikalsk’ Samspil i Musikterapi [Eng.: ’Commusical’ Interplay in Music Therapy. Qualitative Video Analyses of Musical and Gestural Interactions with Children with Severe Functional Limitations, including Children with Autism]. Unpubl. PhD thesis, Aalborg Universitet. Holck, U. (2004) Interaction Themes in Music Therapy – Definition and Delimitation. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 13(1): 3-19. Holck, U, Oldfield, A. & Plahl, C. (2005) Video Micro Analysis in Music Therapy Research, a Research Workshop. In Aldridge, D., Fachner, J. & Erkkilä, J. (eds) Many Faces of Music Therapy – Proceedings of the 6th European Music Therapy Congress, June 16-20, 2004 Jyväskylä, Finland. P. 1094-1110. eBook (PDF) available at MusicTherapyToday.com Vol.6. Issue 4 (November 2005).