Loops and Jazz Gaps: Engaging the Feedforward Qualities of Communicative Musicality in Play Therapy with Children with Autism

Publication date: Available online 9 November 2019Source: The Arts in PsychotherapyAuthor(s): Stuart DanielAbstractConsideration is given to the hypothesis provided by Trevarthen and Delafield-Butt (2013) – that disruption of social synchrony in autism is rooted in disturbance of prospective motor control for expressive action and active perception of other's expression: crucially, autism is a disturbance of “sensorimotor intentionality” (Delafield-Butt and Gangopadhyay 2013). The feedforward qualities of communicative musicality (Malloch, Trevarthen, Malloch, and Trevarthen (2009))) – the temporal motivation and organisation inherent in pulse and vitality – are taken as foundational for a series of therapeutic principles developed here. The aim: to support disrupted prosocial “intentional movements” by overlaying, integrating, and piggy-backing on intact rhythm and vitality imported, in the moment, from cross-modality experiences – to imbue a child’s interaction with forward looking organisation and impulse to interact. These principles are illustrated in the form of mini case studies, taken from real play therapy sessions. Certain key concepts are introduced, including: the use of rhythm as compelling structure, the 'jazz gap' as temporal catalyst, the calming and engaging effect of inter-synchrony, and the vitality-matching of a child's emotive and motoric patterns.
Source: Arts in Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research