From birth, music can have a profound effect on the growth and development of children. Music can soothe and pacify, promote learning and offer a sense of security in a time of uncertainty. At Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children, the team of highly trained music therapists use live music interventions to help children reach their physiological, emotional, cognitive and social goals.

Our Services

Music Therapy is the prescribed use of music by a board certified music therapist to help patients reach non-musical goals. Goals that we work on with our pediatric population include:

• Decreasing depression and anxiety
• Increasing coping skills
• Normalizing Environment
• Increasing Control over Environment
• Increasing Socialization
• Eliminating or Decreasing Sedation for Pediatric Procedures
• Pain Reduction and Management for Invasive Procedures
• Improving Physical Rehabilitation and Development
• Improving Speech and Language Rehabilitation
• Improving Neurological Development

Music Therapists use a variety of techniques that have been proven significantly effective to help pediatric patients reach the above goals. Some of the techniques used include, but are certainly not limited to: songwriting, lyric analysis and substitution, guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, live music making and improvisation and music education.

One-on-one Session with the Music Therapist

In our one-on-one sessions, the patient gets to interact with the music therapist in the privacy of his/her own hospital room. In these sessions, the patient is in control and can choose from a variety of activities as well as instruments, puppets, scarves, and toys that provide for an interactive music making experience. Patients may also decide to participate in more expressive activities such as songwriting and music improvisation.

Music Therapy Groups

Each week, music therapy groups are provided to give pediatric patients a chance to interact with other patients through different musical activities. The activities that are provided by the music therapist are designed to bring the patients together in a fun, music making environment. Patients will have the chance to lead activities and play with a variety of instruments and toys. The music therapy groups focus on normalizing the hospital environment as well as giving the patients a chance to talk about different issues surrounding the hospital environment through expressive music activities.

Music Therapy Assisted Procedural Support

When children are admitted to the hospital, they may have to undergo various tests and procedures. Some of these procedures such as echocardiograms, CT scans and MRI scans require sedation for small children and infants. Music Therapy has been proven as a successful intervention for eliminating the need for sedation using live familiar music as a distraction or as a catalyst for sleep. The music therapist uses a variety of instruments and materials paired with familiar songs that help the patient to relax and educate him/her on the procedure needed. Usually, the music therapist stays with the pediatric patient for the entire procedure so the music can provide comfort and a supportive and familiar environment for the patient.

Music Therapy in Neonatal Intensive Care

At a time when babies are usually growing and developing in their mother’s womb, premature infants are exposed to the busy medical environment of the neonatal intensive care unit and commonly endure painful treatments and procedures. The critical process of neurological development that takes place during the 3rd trimester is usually delayed due to the stress these infants experience in the NICU. Through specific research based techniques, music therapy has been proven successful in increasing premature infants’ tolerance to stimulation resulting in faster weight gain and a decreased length of stay. There are 2 main treatments music therapy uses in the NICU. The first is multimodal stimulation. This treatment is to help increase each baby’s tolerance to different types of stimulation in the NICU. Using live lullaby music sung with classical guitar accompaniment, the music therapist administers 3 different types of stimulation – auditory, tactile (massage) and vestibular (rocking). Through this process, each baby learns to tolerate the different sounds in the NICU as well as being touched and held. The second treatment is using a device called the PAL or Pacifier Activated Lullaby and is used with preemies who are having a hard time feeding. This machine helps to teach preemies the suck, swallow, breath reflex needed when being bottle fed using music as a reward each time the baby sucks. As a result, these babies gain weight and leave the hospital faster.

Service Hours and Contact Information

The music therapy team is available Monday- Friday, 9- 530pm. Once a referral has been made by a FHO staff member, a music therapist will come to visit every other day until the patient has been discharged. If there is a certain procedure that you would like music therapy to assist with and is outside of our time of availability, exceptions can be made if patient is appropriate and will benefit from music therapy.

If you have any questions about our music therapy services or would like to speak with a music therapist, please call:

Amy Robertson, MM, MT-BC, NICU MT
Music Therapy Supervisor
Florida Hospital Orlando
(407) 303-5600, ext. 110-3167