Value of musical instruments used by the therapist to elicit responses from individuals in various stages of Alzheimer's disease.

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of designated musical instruments used by the therapist to elicit responses from persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) during group sessions. In Experiment 1, 15 individuals in the early and middle stages of AD echoed rhythm patterns played by the therapist via the djembe, claves, paddle drum, and maraca. Results indicated significance for the rhythm patterns used, p < .05, and the types of instruments used, p < .05. A significant difference occurred for interaction of instruments by rhythms, p < .001. Rhythmic accuracy was highest when the therapist presented rhythms on the djembe, followed by the paddle drum, maraca, and claves. The most accurate rhythm pattern was 8 eighth-notes, the second most accurate was 4 quarter-notes, and the third was 2 eighths followed by a quarter note, repeated. Ten individuals in the middle to later stages of AD participated in Experiment 2. The treatment conditions consisted of 6 musical instruments used by the therapists to elicit responses during movement, singing, and rhythm activities. Average participation at any level (singing and moving/playing, singing only, and moving/playing only) in the 6 treatment conditions was highest during a cappella singing (63%), followed by djembe (61%), keyboard (60%), guitar and djembe (57%), and then guitar (54%) and autoharp (54%). Average participation at any level in the four activities, without any consideration of instruments, was as follows: 83% for the rhythm activity, 51% for the movement activity, and 49% for the first as well as second singing activity. Results indicated significant differences for the treatment conditions, p < .001, and for types of activities, p < .05. Significant difference, p < .01, occurred for interaction of treatment condition by activity.

Effects of the pacifier activated lullaby on weight gain of premature infants.

Within the past 5 years there has been an increase of premature infants surviving in the neonatal intensive care unit as well as an increasing cost for each day the infant is kept there. It is important for the premature infant to acquire the feeding skills necessary for weight gain, which lead to discharge from the hospital, and recent advancements have indicated the effectiveness in using contingent music to teach sucking skills to premature infants. The purpose of the first analysis in this study was to determine the effects of Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL) trials on weight gain of premature infants. During a 2-year time period, 62 infants from a sample of 188 met criteria for analysis. A one-way analysis of variance showed no significance in daily weight gain for the number of PAL trials completed. The mean weight gains for infants with 1 PAL trial = 13.85 grams, 2 trials = 26.67, 3 trials = 29.64, and 4 or more = 22.89. The Pearson product-moment correlation between the mean percent of music earned via nonnutritive sucking (NNS) and mean weight gain of all trials approached significance (p = .077, r = 0.18). In a second analysis, weight gained prior to use of PAL, during use of PAL, and post use of PAL was analyzed. Results indicated no significant difference between weight gain 1 day prior to use of PAL, the day of PAL trial, and 1 day post use of PAL. Mean weight gain for those infants who participated in 1 PAL trial was 8.49 grams for 1 day prior to use of PAL, 18.73 the day of PAL trial, and 24.81 for 1 day post use of PAL. Mean weight gain for 3 days prior to using the PAL was 10.78, 11.30 on the day of PAL trial, and 24.78 grams for 3 days post PAL use. The analyses show definite trends of greater weight gain with PAL use; however, individual variability within groups was greater than group differences leading to no significance in statistical analysis. In the third analysis the effect of proximity between premature infants' feeding schedule and PAL trial on amount of time the infant received contingent music via NNS was examined; the infants' feeding and sleep schedules were divided into 5 blocks of time. Results indicated no statistical significance among the amount of time premature infants sucked/received music according to their schedule, although there were noticeable differences in the average percent of music reinforcement received according to assigned block. Infants who participated in PAL trials 30 minutes prior to feeding scored the highest average at 77.25 %, followed by 71% for infants who participated in PAL trials during feeding. Other times, primarily after the infants' feeding, resulted in averages of 59% and 54.5%; these infants often fell asleep after their feeding and did not complete the full 15-minute trial. Based on this research and previous research on NNS, it seems beneficial for premature infants to participate in PAL opportunities 30 minutes prior to feeding.

Comparison of different methods for eliciting exercise-to-music for clients with Alzheimer's disease.

Many of the noted problems associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) sometimes can be delayed, retarded, or even reversed with proper exercise and interaction with the environment. An overwhelming body of research efforts has revealed that music activity brings about the greatest degree of responsiveness, including exercise, in clients with AD; yet, specific techniques which elicit the greatest amount of physical responses during the music activities remain unidentified. The purpose of this study was two-fold: comparing two methods of intervention and comparing responses to vocal versus instrumental music during exercise and exercise with instruments. In Experiment 1 the authors compared 2 treatment conditions to facilitate exercise during music activities: (a) verbalizing the movement for each task once, one beat before commencing, followed by visual cueing for the remainder of the task; (b) verbal and visual cueing for each revolution or change in rhythm for the duration of the task. Data collection over 38 sessions consisted of recording the participation of each client at 30-second intervals for the duration of each treatment condition, indicating at each interval whether the client was participating in the designated movement (difficult), participating in exercise approximating the designated movement (easy), or not participating. Results indicated that the continuous verbal cueing/easy treatment elicited significantly greater participation than one verbal cue/difficult treatment, p <.05. Furthermore, the approximation/precise response (easy) resulted in significantly greater responses than the precise response (difficult), p < .001. In Experiment 2 the responses to types of music, vocal versus instrumental, during types of activities, exercise with and without instruments, were examined. Data were collected over 26 sessions, 52 activities, in the same 2 assisted living facilities as those in Experiment 1, but one year later Results indicated that both the type of activity and the type of music had some effect on participation. Also, data indicated participation in exercise to instrumental music was significantly greater than exercise with instruments to vocal music, p <.05.