Motivators for Children with Severe Intellectual Disabilities in the Self-Contained Classroom: A Movement Analysis

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of the presence of a music therapist versus the use of switch-activated toys and recorded music in evoking physiological, affective, and vocal responses in school-aged children who are considered SID, or Severely Intellectually Disabled. Researchers studied movement responses to determine how these children might respond more readily to a music therapist interacting musically with them than to the toys and to the recorded music. Each of the 17 children participated in a videotaped session that included 5 trials. Other than the rest trial, motivators presented were: a switch-activated pig toy, switch-activated recorded music, the music therapist playing and singing to the child contingent upon his touching the guitar, and the therapist playing and singing to the child continually. A data collection sheet was developed by the researchers to assess positive responses by measuring limb and head movement, vocal sound, and facial expression change. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine differences in means responses to music and nonmusic trials. At a 90% level of confidence, statistical significance was attained in comparing the responses to the pig toy, recorded music, and "activated guitar" trial to the trial during which the therapist played guitar and sang continually to the child. In addition, at a 95% level of confidence, statistically significant differences were found in comparing the pig and the recorded music trials with the therapist trial.