Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Raquel Stephenson

Abstract

Emotional regulation is a skill that involves an ability to be aware of what is happening both within one’s own body as well as in their surroundings. There has been some discussion and research around the way that musical activities can provide the stimuli and participatory actions to practice these skills used in emotional regulation. This community engagement project was designed as a two-time class called Big Music which gave students with special needs an opportunity to come together as a community to sing and make music. Each structured 30-minute session used techniques such as call and response, varying tempos, and imitation intended to promote skills used in emotional regulation. The results suggested that music groups can help create a sense of community, generate moments of congruence and dissonance that influence co/self-regulation, and hold space for shifting emotions and various motor and executive functioning skills.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
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