ABSTRACT
The Neonatal Music Therapy programme at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH) offers a family centred programme for newborn infants hospitalised at birth for major surgical or medical care. This chapter focuses on the use of contingent singing in therapist-directed work with an infant. The contingent relationship provides opportunities for dyadic achievement which represents an expanded state of consciousness. Music therapy is one of the allied health services provided to families in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and special care nurseries at RCH. The primary purpose of the NICU is the physical survival of prematurely born and full-term infants with high-risk medical conditions at birth. In music therapy, contingent singing and song can be controlled to offer hospitalised neonates and infants opportunities for reassuring companionship. The non-prosodic aspects of the human voice are only being scrutinised for their impact in naturally occurring and therapeutic intervention.
