Pre-Congress Seminar 7
First Sounds: Rhythm, Breath & Lullaby NICU Music Therapy Training
Presenter
Joanne Loewy
USA
The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ann-Marie Dassler
USA
The Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, NYC
Andrew Rossetti
USA
The Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, NYC
Aimee Telsey
USA
The Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, NYC
Description
The intra-uterine sound environment leaves a wordless and amorphous memory trace which serves as a template for all future rhythmic response and provides us with a lifelong sound and rhythmic symbolic image of security, thereby providing for continuity between intra- and extra-uterine life. A range of philosophical and theoretical stances frame the application of music in the NICU and Special Care Nurseries. RBL champions live music making between infants and their caregiver and is informed by theories of healthy dyadic and triadic development, trauma amelioration, and neuropsychological development. RBL seeks to embrace models, which enable culturally sensitive applications rather than imposing a singular cultural model. We acknowledge a diversity of philosophical stances making it possible for the Rhythm, Breath, Lullaby program to support effective practice, Interventions for families of infants in the NICU encourage and support the caregiver-infant bonding process, provide trauma amelioration, and offer a means of coping.