The effect of music therapy on the maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors of adults with developmental disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of individualized music therapy protocols in decreasing the duration of instances of elevated levels of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities. The participants were four adults with developmental disabilities, recommended for the study based on the presence of severe and/or frequent instances of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors. ABAB reversal design was used to examine the effectiveness of the usual staff techniques (A) and the individualized music therapy protocols (B) in decreasing the duration of instances of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors. The independent variables were the following two conditions: interacting with each participant while he or she was exhibiting the targeted maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors at a rate per minute that exceeded the participant's usual rate per minute, using (A) non-music interventions recommended by staff, or (B) individualized music therapy protocols. The dependent variable was the time that elapsed from the onset to the conclusion of each instance of elevated levels of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors. Results from the four case studies indicated that music therapy protocols can be used to decrease the duration of instances of elevated levels of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities, and that music therapy protocols can decrease these behaviors more quickly than the usual staff techniques in most cases. Three out of four participants responded better to the music therapy protocols than the usual staff techniques. The final participant responded to music therapy protocols and staff techniques exactly the same in terms of average duration of instances of elevated levels of maladaptive emotionally regulative behaviors.