Music activities as rehabilitation measures to empower bereaved children as a socially vulnerable group

The paper briefly introduces some theoretical considerations on bereaved children surveys in the domains of their grieving, psychosocial development, and modelling the empowerment strategies. The significance of rehabilitation in education is psychosomatic, because an individual´s mental state has impact on his or her posture. The loss of a close person is a negative experience with the predisposition to affect bereaved children´s breathing or muscle tone, more precisely certain muscle groups. In rehabilitation music activities are used mainly to reduce pain and improve muscle function. It is analgesic effect of music that is most frequently used in reducing anxiety and pain perception (Spintge, in Wigram, 1996). Music activities can be used to positively affect their vegetative nervous system, muscle relaxation and spasmolytic effect (in the spinal cord) and stimulate blood flow in bereaved children. Rehabilitation lesson with music activities should be designed based on a child´s personality, music preferences and other “individual helpers” that can help a therapist to select appropriate music activity and design the effective programme. It should last from 30-60 minutes. Finally, it is important to set short-term and long-term therapy plan which depends on particular problems and circumstances of a child. The following components of the empowerment process should be included to rehabilitation music programme: self-efficacy, competence, knowledge and action. If physio-therapists and/or music therapists and/or educationalists select appropriate music activities, they can affect in a significant positive way a child´s posture and avoid various deformities of his or her feet and spine.