Preparing to observe the impact of therapeutic teaching practices. From Flow to self regulation and learning

Abstract: This paper outlines the research process that aimed to evidence the impact of therapeutic teaching practice within a school for young people with social and emotional challenges resulting from adverse childhood experiences. It is an issue for society that many children and young people have traumatic experiences in their lives that seriously impact on their wellbeing, health and capacities to learn. This paper outlines a New Approach to supporting such vulnerable learners. The project entitled «Learning in a new key» (LINK) involved music therapists working with non-music specialist teachers to introduce musical listening and improvisation as a regular group therapeutic experience in the classroom. The music of our society is a deep cultural reservoir that can be drawn on by teachers to soothe, nurture and potentially heal our troubled and vulnerable young people. The observational schedule herein described was developed during the second year of the project to measure the impact of this work on individual young people. The tool originated from the work of Csikszentmihalyi (1990), to assess the optimal state of being, he called Flow. The concept was developed further to enable researchers to observe and measure the Flow experience in classrooms with young children engaged in active music making (Addessi, Ferrari, & Carugati, 2015). This paper maps the growth of the observation tool within the LINK Project drawing on ideas from early years education, therapeutic practice and psychology. Research into the impact of music listening and making on brain development and healing has also influenced the design of the schedule leading to insights about sensory processing and relationality (Perry & Hambrick, 2008). The use of Flow variables is a relatively new approach in education where systems would benefit from being able to develop a rationale for such practice to meet the challenging needs of children and young people with adverse childhood experiences. Discussion of the potential for the Flow observation schedule will be explored and recommendations for the future identified that will include the use by individual teachers