Is restlessness best understood as a process? Reflecting on four boys' restlessness during music therapy in...

Area of Science:

• Music Therapy
• Child Psychology
• Community Psychology

Background:

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common framework for understanding children's restlessness.
• Alternative perspectives beyond neurodevelopmental disorder are needed to understand children's restlessness.
• Community music therapy offers a unique lens for exploring children's behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the collaborative and creative processes of four boys within a community music therapy project.
• To understand how adults perceive and interpret children's restlessness in this context.
• To investigate the potential of community music therapy in understanding factors contributing to children's restlessness.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative exploration of a community music therapy project in a Norwegian kindergarten.
• Observation and description of four interrelated phases: exploration, consolidation, performance, and ripple effects.
• Analysis of the process in relation to seven core qualities of community music therapy.

Main Results:

• Identified four phases in the boys' collaborative and creative musical process.
• Highlighted the importance of adult and systemic contributions to children's restlessness.
• Demonstrated how community music therapy can offer alternative understandings of restlessness.

Conclusions:

• A community music therapy approach provides insights into adult and systemic influences on children's restlessness.
• This approach contrasts with diagnostic frameworks focusing on individual problems.
• Community music therapy emphasizes participation, resource orientation, ecology, performance, activism, reflexivity, and ethics.