1

SEMINAR Arts of Intimacy:

Special Means For Special Needs. (Or, Natural Means for Natural Needs)

Prof. Colwyn Trevarthen, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh

INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC IN HUMAN & SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (IMHSD)

PERCEPTION, MOVEMENT & ACTION RESEARCH CENTRE (PMARC)

UiO Institutt for Spesialpedagogikk

Det Utdanningsvitenskapelige Fakultet Helga Engs Hus, Fakultetstyrerom

24 May, 2011

We Communicate Our Intentions, Interests and Feelings by Many Rhythmic Movements

of Our Bodies, and in Our Bodies

Our movements are paced by 'time in the mind' -- by 'neural clocks' that control the energy of actions in steps of time. This is the Intrinsic Motive Pulse (IMP) of our animal nature.

Babies’ Movements have Innate Rhythm Though sometimes chaotic with reflex 'corrections', the infant's movements show different ‘vitality dynamics’ -- of urgency or peacefulness, graceful ease or tension, pleasure or displeasure. They are controlled by coherent, and powerfully communicative emotions.

They Express An Innate Human Spirit

OBJECTS IN MOTION CAN COME TO LIFE Here are two objects recorded by 'motion capture’ in a 3D space. What do their motions convey to you?

Is their motion just physical?

Are they alive – moving -- acting with vitality?

Are they aware or intelligent?

Are there two of them, separately active?

Are they communicating, socially?

Do they show changing emotions?

Are they showing signs of sympathy?

Could they be telling a story?

Two Things. What Are They?

What Is Happening?

WHAT, THEN, ARE YOUR ANSWERS? Is their motion just physical?

Are they alive – moving -- acting with vitality?

Are they aware or intelligent?

Are there two of them, separately active?

Are they communicating, socially?

Do they show changing emotions?

Are they showing signs of sympathy?

Could they be telling a story?

2

HERE ARE THE ACTORS IN THAT STORY

He was born 2 weeks before term at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of by induced labour. His mother had high blood pressure, otherwise all was well. Mother and baby were being discharged at time of recording, 1 week later.

Baby Bailey is male, and one week

premature.

Red marker, left arm; Green right arm

There are two sides to the making of all human art and invention:

Self-feeling in the body -- making projects for moving in a world of interesting places and

things, evaluating how they might make us feel Making Sense of Experience

and Sharing Others’ stories – creating

imaginative adventures with companions, in the drama of a community Making Meaning In Company.

The Human Mind directs the movements of a Self-As-Agent (Macmurray, 1959)with Inner Feeling, with one sense of time for acting, and one set of emotions for evaluating the risks and benefits of acting, for keeping the Vital Self alive and well.

Human Selves live by communicating their Motives and Emotions of Agency – as sympathetic Persons-In-Relation (Macmurray, 1961), giving both care and imaginative, useful company

Human creations, the art or technique of knowledge, begin with beauty of self-conscious form of moving, and moral value in relationships of community.

Music, for example, is art in sound. It must be well done, but it is more than formal technique, either in composition or in performance. It has natural meaning that comes from the feeling of movement in time, and its sharing.

The View of One Philosopher of Science and Learning

"Culture is activity of thought,��� and receptiveness to beauty ��� and humane feeling. ��� Scraps of information have ��� nothing to do with it."   Whitehead, A. N. (1929). ���The Aims of Education & Other Essays, ���New York: Macmillan.

3

The Apple in Eden: How Is Meaning

Shared Before Words?

Infant psychology confirms that knowledge is shared creativity in movement, with feelings of interest and affection.

Titian – “The Fall of Adam”

Japanese Boy, 10 Months Old, ���With His Mother, Appreciating Her Performance He watches her rhythmic hand play to accompany a

nursery song, and bows politely to her at the end.

SYMPATHETIC IMITATION COMMUNICATES BY SHARING VITAL TIME

OF BODY ACTIONS AND FEELINGS

By imitating, persons express the intuitive readiness to move rhythmically with others in games of sociability.

Imitations play many parts, with emotions of interest and pleasure. Matching another’s actions may seek attention and provoke reply, accept or reject advances, express admiration or mockery, and cause pride or shame .

Trevarthen, C. (2005). First things first: infants make good use of the sympathetic rhythm of imitation, without reason or language Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 31(1): 91 – 113.

That’s pride!

Music Moves Us Together from Birth.

And the Sharing

Brings Joy

THE MUSIC AND DANCE OF SHARING

A TALE OF FOUR GENERATIONS

Téa, 5, is dancing with her grandmother to French fiddle music played by her uncle, holding a doll made by her great grandmother

Natural Communicative Musicality, Expression of the Idea from 230 Years Ago

"After the pleasures which arise from gratification of the bodily appetites, there seems to be none more natural to man than Music and Dancing. In the progress of art and improvement they are, perhaps, the first and earliest pleasures of his own invention; for those which arise from the gratification of the bodily appetites cannot be said to be his own invention."

Adam Smith (1777/1982) Of the nature of that imitation which takes place in what are called the imitative arts. !In, Essays on Philosophical Subjects,. !(Ed. Wightman and Bryce;) Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.

4

Musical Tells Emotional Narratives

"Without any imitation, instrumental Music can produce very considerable effects... : by the sweetness of its sounds it awakens agreeably, and calls upon the attention; by their connection and affinity it naturally detains that attention, which follows easily a series of agreeable sounds, which have all a certain relation both to a common, fundamental, or leading note, called the key note; and to a certain succession or combination of notes, called the song or composition."

Adam Smith, again.

Music Moves Between Memory and Imagination Making and Sharing Personal Narratives

"Time and measure are to instrumental Music what order and method are to discourse; they break it into proper parts and divisions, by which we are enabled both to remember better what has gone before, and frequently to foresee somewhat of what is to come after: .... the enjoyment of Music arises partly from memory and partly from foresight."

Adam Smith, and again.

HOW DOES THE SELF BECOME A COMMUNITY?

“The nature of the self has been one of the central problems in philosophy and most recently in neuroscience. Here, we suggest that animals and humans share a ‘core self’ represented in homologous underlying neural networks. We argue that the core self might be constituted by an integrative neuronal mechanism that enables self-related processing (SRP).” [With the visceral pulse of vitality, being shared]

Georg Northoff and Jaak Panksepp (2008). The trans-species concept of self and the subcortical–cortical midline system Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(7), 259-264.

A Human Self has Three kinds of Experience, Three uses of Moving &

Three ways of Feeling

5

TIMES OF THE MIND AND OF MUSIC ���ARE INNATE AND APPEAR IN THE

MOVEMENTS OF INFANTS

Basic rhythms, and their emotional qualities, are the same in infants and adults.

This makes communication of the shared vitality of intentions, interests and feelings possible, before 'facts' of shared knowledge about actions and objects are named in speech.

A newborn in Hyderabad, 1/2 hour old, is coordinated, alert and aware

He is eagerly tracking a lively ball because another person is moving it in a ‘game’,

teasing him.

SHORTEST PERCEPTIBLE &

CONTOLLABLE EVENTS

0.05 to 0.2 seconds

Their control requires practice of skills

S1 – FINE ADJUSTMENTS OF SOMATIC ACTIONS

6

THE PRESENT MOMENT OF CONSCIOUS ACTING

From 0.3 to 6 seconds

S2 – CONTROLLED PRACTICAL SOMATIC ACTIONS

‘NARRATIVE’ TIMES OF THE MIND, AND OF MUSIC, ARE INNATE TOO

Basic rhythms, and their emotional qualities, are the same in infants and adults.

We communicate the vitality of our intentions, interests and feelings in stories of movement -- before 'facts' of knowledge about actions and objects are identified in speech.

IMAGINED FUTURE & RECALLED PAST IN ACTION & THOUGHT (GENERATING MEMORIES &

EXPECTATIONS WITH AFFECTS)

From verses/stanzas of songs & dance performances, narratives/stories, reasoned arguments, to hopes of the day & lifetimes

All depend on a sense of Vital Time

V –VISCERAL OR VITAL TIME. FEELINGS OF BEING ALIVE

EMBODIED SYNCHRONICITY -- Sharing ���the stories of dreams in breathing and heartbeat.

Téa is 1 year old and sleeping with her Mother.

7

A CHILD IS BORN WITH BODY & BRAIN READY TO MOVE IN COMPANY - MUSICALITY IS INNATE -

IT CONDUCTS OUR MENTAL DRAMA & SHARES IT

Infants are much cleverer than we had thought at discriminating musical rhythms and tones of human sounds, and appreciating a story. They hear and learn musicality of mother's talk and simple tunes before birth. A two-month-old can be a skilled performer in an improvised vocal duet or protoconversation, a shared story over tens of seconds.

FORMS OF VITALITY: Exploring Dynamic Experience in

Psychology, the Arts. Psychotherapy and Development. Daniel N. Stern M. D.

2010. Oxford University Press

Vitality dynamics are psychological, subjective phenomena. They concern temporally contoured movements that are initiated by invisible felt forces … felt as aliveness. Vitality dynamics are … designed to fit the workings of the human world

Consider the following list of words. exploding surging accelerating Swelling bursting fading drawn out disappearing fleeting forcefull powerful weak cresting pulsing tentative rushing pulling pushing Relaxing langourous floating fluttering effortful easy Tense gentle halting gliding swinging tightly holding still loosely bounding and many more.

These words are common, but the list is curious. Most of the words are adverbs or adjectives. They are not emotions or motivational states … pure perceptions … sensations -- they have no modality. They are not cognitions or acts, as they have no goal state and no specific means. They fall in between all the cracks. They are the felt experience of force – in movement – with a temporal contour - and a sense of aliveness. … shapes of expressive movement. They concern the How, the manner, the style, not the What nor the Why.

Vitality dynamics are the child of movement.

Movement is our primary experience and vitality dynamic experience is the most primitive and fundamental of all felt experience.

NEONATAL IMITATION IS FOR TWO: Research of Dr. Emese Nagy in Szeged, Hungary, with Newborns

8

Two fingers – experimenter 00:06:05:42 Two fingers – baby

00:06:06:91

Naseera, born 3 months early, kangarooing with father

A Swedish Mother Sings to Her Blind 5-Month-Old Daughter

9

DEPRESSED MOTHERS���LOSE MUSICALITY -- THEY

CANNOT SHARE MOTIVES AND FEELINGS���

When they talk with their infants, taking part in adventures of action and of thought

is more difficult for both. ���

The baby may become depressed, too.

10

Shona cannot find her mother’s face

Then she gets a fright when the microphones start squealing���

What’s that noise? Oh! That’s horrible!

Shona’s mother immediately shows a ‘sympathetic’ emotion���

Oh dear, I don’t want to see a pouty face!

11

The noise is corrected and she sees her mother���

There you are!

“That’s better!”

What a funny mother! What’s going on in your head?

What I have to say. Silly, billy girl!

12

You make me laugh! A happy baby in contact after one minute of play���

(No comment)

The happy minute of Shona’s mother is replayed���She is out of touch, withdrawn, sad

when mother is just a recording

REPLAY

The same moment in the mother’s TV behaviour���

Live and in communication. Replay. Avoidant.

The happy minute of Shona’s mother is replayed.

Shona is out of touch, withdrawn, sad when mother is just a recording

STUDIES DEMONSTRATING THE USE OF MUSIC

TO AID COMMUNICATION

13

I - EARLY SIGNS OF AUTISM TROUBLE WITH TIMING

Different Rhythms: ���Effects on an Infant Developing Autism and on Her Father When Mutually Regulated Communication Goes Astray.���

Stuart Daniel & Catherine St Clair���

•  Home video recordings of two identical 10-month-old monozygotic twin sisters were subjected to micro-analysis.

•  Twin A was diagnosed as autistic at age 18 months according to ICD-10, and Twin B had a near normal developmental history to this stage.

In the Family In the Family In the Family

Jenny Walking Bronny, Movements Bronny

Jumping

Each tape record shows one of the girls with their father, and in both the father is inviting the girls to play a teasing "Monster Game”. The father humorously builds up with growling noises to blowing a raspberry on the child's stomach.

THE MONSTER GAME"

Jenny, Monster Game Jenny Game

14

Bronny, Monster Game

Bronny Game

Findings

With the support of detailed subjective descriptions, and graphs of the interaction patterns and of states of attention, anticipation and emotional build-up, the following data were obtained:

Strong patterns and cycles of mutual-regulation were clearly present with Jenny.

For this twin the game is performed by the two partners in rhythmic coordination, and it is enjoyed easily.

With the autistic twin, Bronny, there was little eye contact and no well-timed ‘co-regulation’.

There was no anticipation or build-up of emotion.

It is hardly a "game" at all.

15

In his attempts to engage his autistic daughter, the father receives little reinforcement for his behaviour, as he does from the developmentally normal twin.

The absence of these normal, regulated social rewards affects the father's play.

With the autistic twin he misses the stages of social tension and emotional build-up.

He gives up trying to regulate these in favour of frequent periods of physical stimulation.

Although this may be interpreted as a natural adaptive response on the part of the father, who is trying to make his daughter respond happily, his behaviour can be seen to increase the active social withdrawal shown by the twin with autism.

The findings are comparable to those of other studies based on analysis of videos of infants under one year who were later diagnosed as autistic.

16

There is no biological or genetic test and no reliable measure of the body or of behaviour of a child to confirm a diagnosis of autism. Its relative “invisibility” means that diagnosis does not usually occur until after language has failed to develop – usually when the child is 3 or 4 years old.

However, parents are often aware of differences much earlier than this -- 50% of parents with autism report that they suspected a problem before their child was one year of age.

Autism is in essence a disturbance of the innately motivated intersubjective vitality and consciousness of the child -- it must affect persons who live with the child. To help we must aid the will to move in sympathy

St. Clair, C., Danon-Boileau, L. & Trevarthen, C. (2007). Signs of autism in infancy: sensitivity for rhythms of expression in communication. In S. Acquarone (Ed.) Signs of Autism In Infants: Recognition and Early Intervention, pp. 21-45. London: Karnac.

II - Contributing to Each Other’s Rhythm: Musical Interaction with Children with Autism in India

Baishali Banerjee Mukherjee Department of Primary Education, University of Strathclyde

Sha -- Narrative of Vocal Interaction & Contingent Turn-Taking Through a Song

Therapist = White; Child = Pink; Child and Therapist together = Red Cross-Hatched

Sashwat Responds to a Melody by Matching the Pitch of My Voice and Imitating the Duration

1.  The first curve shows the pitch movement of part of a song in which I was inviting Sashwat to participate in the music. The curve is U shaped. The pitch starts at 375 Hz.

2.  Sashwat matched the pitch of his voice with my voice around 375Hz, and the duration of his vocalisation is almost the same as mine.

3.  I responded by matching my voice to his.

Therapist Sashwat Therapist

17

Approach of this Research for a PhD at the University of Strathclyde

completed in 2008

This is an Explorative Research study employing Analysis of Individual Cases in a Collated Group Design

Participants of the Study

•  12 Children (2 Girls and 10 Boys) diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, from The Spastic Society of Bangalore, India participated.

•  The children were aged between 3 and 8 years.

•  It was their first invitation to share Musical Interaction of any kind in the school.

Method of Data Collection

•  I sang Indian songs, usually with no instrumental accompaniment, in an interactive non-structured and playful manner in individual sessions lasting for 20 to 30 minutes, twice in a week.

• A few simple Musical Instruments were provided.

• All the sessions were video recorded.

Steps in the Analysis

• A Summary Description was made of the ‘Narrative’ or ‘Story’ of the whole Session.

•  The Child’s Expressive Communication was evaluated using Defined Categories.

•  Selected ‘Episodes’ were subjected to a Micro-Analysis of Musical and Interpersonal Engagement in the session.

•  The Vocal and Movement Expressions in the ‘Episodes’ were Analysed.

Criteria of Selecting ‘Episodes’

•  The child was definitely Participating in the Music.

•  The Child was Actively Creating Musical Ideas.

•  There was an Engagement between us. • We Expressed Shared Emotion. • We were Enjoying Being Together. • We shared Spontaneous Creative Play.

Conclusions

•  Rhythm brings life to interpersonal engagement of children with autism. In it they find a space for communication.

•  Rhythm of music attracts the children’s Attention, Listening, Motivation, Interest, and Engagement, and it evokes Creativity.

•  The children heard an unfamiliar song, then paid attention and listened to it with interest. They became engaged and synchronized with it to express or create rhythms and to communicate with the therapist.

•  Rhythm motivated the development of communicative skills with children who are handicapped by autism, which affects their motor coordination, attention and engagement with others’ behaviour.

18

III

Wigram, T. and Elefant, C. (2009). Therapeutic dialogues in music: Nurturing musicality of communication in children with autistic spectrum disorder and Rett syndrome.

In Malloch, S. and Trevarthen, C. (Eds.) Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, 423-445. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hearing a musically well-balanced song offers order and meaning, and a Rett child can become open to her surroundings, communicative, and ready to engage with her environment (Cochavit with Yaffa and Ella).

During assessment: Cochavit develops a musical relationship with Ella

“Music is a universal human form of communication that has the capacity to overcome linguistic, physical, mental and cognitive barriers to understanding with others. … When severe developmental disability is evident from birth or at a very young age, the child and parent might not be able to interact and share their motives and emotions in harmonious ways. This, in turn, may affect the child’s development of a confident and able ‘self ’. The child may appear to others as mute, unemotional and with little understanding of surroundings.”

Continued …

“We have shown in this chapter that the principles of human motivation called communicative musicality can be harnessed as a powerful tool that can aid even the emotionally barricaded child with autism to converse on the piano with his music therapist. We have seen the severely handicapped child with Rett syndrome become able to freely ‘chat’ with the singing of her music therapist when the setting gives her responsive support. When meeting a speechless client, the music therapist has the tools to promote communicative musicality, thus enabling a person to give their meaning a sound, and to sense that it has been received.”

Page 442

19

IV"

Gratier, M. and Apter-Danon, G. (2009). The improvised musicality of belonging: Repetition and variation in mother–infant vocal interaction. "

In Malloch, S. and Trevarthen, C. (Eds.) Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, 423-445. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

20

“In both the studies—of troubled immigrant mothers and of mothers with borderline personality disorder—we showed that when the mother experiences a loss of belonging, vocal interaction between mother and baby can lose its improvisational vitality, becoming highly repetitive and predictable. We further suggest that the difficulty mothers experience with their sense of belonging is closely related to their sense of time and narrative. Immigrant mothers who feel uprooted live temporarily in a disconnected world; they need time to reconnect to the time of the place they came from with that of the place they came to, and to spin new stories in which one cultural self falls into step with another. Nostalgia thickens time, makes it feel heavy and slow-moving, and bitterly highlights the irreversibility of time (Jankélévitch 1974).” Continued …

“Borderline mothers suffer primarily from a difficulty with their inner sense of time and the production of personal narrative. Here, it is a disruption of self in time, not place in time, which undoes the sense of belonging. … Our thesis supports other researchers’ views that musicality in interaction is a fundamentally humanizing activity through which we continually live. The study of musicality constitutes a unique means of accessing and unravelling pathological as well as healthy interaction, for infants and for adults. These studies make it quite clear that new impulses can be given to dyads that have lost their musicality, and that musicality cuts the most natural path out of suffering and loneliness.”

Page 322