Making Music At Home: Supporting Families of Children with Special Needs

Music therapists in home settings primarily work with the child as the focus of the intervention. However, the parent or caregiver is at home with the child for longer periods that the short music therapy intervention. Therefore, there ire advantages in exploring how to support the families to do music themselves with their young person. This presentation is built upon my PhD thesis on this topic. Participants will be given an understanding of the parent/caregivers perspectives on doing music at home, and we will explore strategies to help families incorporate music into their everyday lives with their child with special needs.

Ajay Castelino has a Master's degree in Music Therapy from the New Zealand School of Music. He has been working as a Registered Music Therapist for over 12 years in the fields of special needs, mental health, and dementia care. He is currently studying towards a Phd, specialising in how to support families to do music at home with their child who has special needs.