The Relevance of Disability Perspectives in Music Therapy Practice with Children and Young People who have Intellectual Disability

Abstract

This paper considers the ways in which a disability studies orientation can be incorporated into music therapy approaches with children and young people who have intellectual disability. A broad overview of medical, social, cultural and affirmative models of disability precedes a vignette describing music therapists and young people with intellectual disability engaged in a music research project which was grounded in the affirmative approach. The young people valued opportunities to be engaged in both music and research activities, and worked hard to express their views and to act upon them in the music context. However several expressed relatively high levels of ambivalence regarding potential opportunities that were afforded to them in the wider community, highlighting the need for adults to carefully monitor the ‘activist’ stance in the context of individual experience. The significant potential for music therapists to engage in participatory approaches with children and young people with intellectual disability is highlighted.