Rome, May 4 (beraking latest news Health) – A musical algorithm that improves the sleep of disabled children, relaxes them and reduces the stress of the parents. It is the innovative rehabilitation technique developed by the researchers of the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome, in the period of the first 2020 lockdown, for patients forced at home by anti-Covid regulations. The results of the trial were published in the ‘Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare’. The rehabilitation method developed by the researchers is called ‘Euterpe’, from the name of the mythological muse of music, and is regularly used by the therapists of the Department of Neurorehabilitation of the Child Jesus, directed by Enrico Castelli, for the multisensory stimulation of children with motor and neurological disabilities. through the combined use of sounds, music, images, aromas, objects, instruments and lights.
During the first lockdown of 2020, this therapy was reworked to also be performed at home (tele-rehabilitation): the researchers developed an original algorithm to sort – in a precise rhythmic sequence – many of the tools used in the hospital to stimulate the senses of the child. and achieve therapeutic goals (relaxation, development of communication skills, improvement of interaction with family members). Personalized audio-video compositions were thus created that contained sounds at particular frequencies, original music, the voice of the mother and the child himself, family songs and lullabies, images linked to pleasant moments recorded during the sessions with the Infant Jesus.
“What experienced could have an important therapeutic impact: from the emotional bond between mother and child, to family involvement with prospects for new learning. Repeating activities in the family environment, activities learned during hospitalization – explains Tommaso Liuzzi, music therapist of the Bambino Gesù – constitutes a process of rehabilitation continuity, placing at the center a new awareness of unexpressed human potentials “.
The study conducted by researchers from the Department of Neurorehabilitation of the Child Jesus involved 14 patients suffering from various neurological disorders (infantile cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, brain malformations), all under 12 years (average age 7 years and 5 months). In the period of suspension of non-urgent hospital visits due to the pandemic, the families involved in the research received the personalized audio-video composition to be administered to the children 3 times a day for 2 consecutive weeks. At the end of the experimentation, the effects of home therapy were assessed with specific scientifically validated questionnaires.
From the analysis statistically significant data emerged – inform from the pediatric hospital – in particular the reduction of children’s sleep disturbances, parental stress levels and the improvement of the child-parent relationship.
“In addition to the results achieved – adds the child neuropsychiatrist Sarah Bompard – it is important to underline that, thanks to this study, the children were able to continue, albeit in different ways and at different times, a rehabilitation therapy. We were also able to give important support to the parents. , worried that the disability of their children could worsen with the suspension of rehabilitation therapies in the hospital “.