THE NEED OF AN INDIVIDUALIZED MUSIC THERAPY ASSESSMENT PROFILE IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS FOR A PEDAGOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PERSONALITY OF A GIFTED CHILD

Abstract

The main purpose of this academic research is to clarify the need of implementing IMTAP- Individualized Music Therapy Assessment Profile, in the pedagogical and psychological assessment of the personality of a gifted child in the educational process, from the aspect of the special educational needs, through analysis of the obtained results from the assessment of the social segment of the personality of gifted children with IMTAP and the results of the testing of the same children with AMP- Achievement Motivation Profile used as comparison.

           For the first time the IMTAP was used in our country, based on the world wide experiences of his use for obtaining relevant data for the global functioning  of the child’s personality. It was used with two groups of adolescents: adolescents gifted for fine arts and adolescents gifted for music. Within 20 music-therapy workshops, where the method of active music therapy of Nordoff & Robbins and the technique of musical improvisation were applied, we identified the strengths and weaknesses of a personality and successfully tracked the progress of the skill for establishing relationships, as a determined problem in the social-emotional area of one’s personality. The results of the IMTAP were compared and statistically analyzed with the results for the social-emotional area of the personality, obtained during the verbal evaluation (self-evaluation) of the two groups of adolescents with AMP.The use of IMTAP showed the usability of the musical activities as a multi sensor medium and recognizable non-verbal communication and showed that their usage as an instrument for the pedagogical and psychological assessment of the social segment in a gifted child’s personality, allows recognition and tracking of the strengths and weaknesses  of the child’s personality from the aspect of the special educational needs.