The " Ensemble "-A Group Music Therapy Treatment for Developing Preschool Children's Social Skills.

(1) Background: Several music therapy treatments have been developed to assist children with social skill deficiencies. They lack reference to emotions and their connection to social skills and they don't deal with group dynamics and its impact on the group. We conducted a preliminary examination of the " Ensemble " treatment, which was developed to improve the social skills of children of various client populations, with the social deficiency originating from different sources; (2) Methods: 24 children in four groups went through the year-long " Ensemble " treatment. Observations of the sessions were analyzed quantitatively counting the occurrence of twelve typical socially oriented behaviors. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 mothers and 23 kindergarten teachers (KTs) before and after the process; (3) Results: Quantitative results show that children in all four " Ensemble " groups, improved in nine out of twelve social skills. Qualitative results show that the improvement was evident also in the home environment (as reported by mothers) and in the kindergarten environment (as reported by KTs); (4) Conclusions: A comparison between the " Ensemble " and previous music therapy treatments indicates this treatment's potential to help children with a wide variety of social skill deficiencies. Further investigation based on more rigorous research designs is recommended.