Abstract:

The aim of this article is to present basic theoretical background, significant research outcomes and practical therapeutic conceptions that influence the development of music therapy in persons with severe multiple disabilities. The article presents the music therapy paradigms from the area of both psychiatry and medicine and possibilities of their using. It reflects the development of the theories that have supported the foundation of internationally widespread music therapy models and it presents selected outputs from author´s research. This research was focused on the population of students in Czech special schools. Its aim was to create a theory of educational process based on the grounded theory (open, axial and selective coding). Semi-structured interviews with teachers, analyses of educational documentation and observation of the educational process were used as metohods for data collection. Some aspects of this theory were sampled and analysed also with quantitative research methods. In the end this article it presents a synthesis of the theoretical background – it reflects the significance and orientation of music therapy related to the needs of persons with multiple disabilities. It also describes the theories as a framework that can be important for next music therapy research in this population.

Keywords:

Music therapy, severe multiple disability, special education, theoretical background.