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A musical algorithm improves the sleep of disabled children

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ROME (ITALPRESS) – A musical algorithm improves the sleep of disabled children, relaxes them and reduces the stress of parents. It is a precise sequence of sounds, voices, music and images developed by the researchers of the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital and customized according to the needs of each patient. The new rehabilitation technique was tested during the first lockdown of 2020 as a replacement therapy for hospital sessions to ensure continuity of care even at home. The research results were published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. The rehabilitation method developed by the researchers of the Child Jesus is called “Euterpe”, from the name of the mythological goddess of Music. It is regularly used by the therapists of the Department of Neurorehabilitation of the Bambino Gesu ‘, directed by Professor Enrico Castelli, for the multisensory stimulation of children with motor and neurological disabilities through the combined use – according to the patient’s needs – of sounds, music, images, aromas, objects, tools and lights. During the first lockdown of 2020, this therapy was reworked to be performed even at home (tele-rehabilitation): the researchers developed an original algorithm to order – 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. “In this study, in addition to the scientific aspects, new nuances have emerged in the family relationship, that is, the pride of seeing with different eyes the abilities and qualities of the child not as a patient but as a protagonist – explains Tommaso Liuzzi, music therapist of the Bambino Gesu -. 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 learned during hospitalization constitutes a process of rehabilitation continuity, placing at the center a new awareness of unexpressed human potentials “. The study conducted by the researchers of 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 Covid-19 pandemic (March-May 2020), 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. Statistically significant data emerged from the analysis, in particular the reduction of children’s sleep disorders, parental stress levels and 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. It is also important to underline that all the families continued the administration of personalized audio-video compositions even after the end of the study, given the numerous benefits found. Among our future objectives there is certainly that of conducting studies on a greater number of patients and with different pathologies “. (ITALPRESS). fsc / com 04-May-21 14:45

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