Effects of and experiences with Eurythmy therapy for children – Report summery
Coauteur(s) en/of redactie: Noortje van Steenbergen
Taal: Engels
Download: Summary report – Effects of and experiences with Eurythmy therapy for children.pdf
• In June 2018, a research group consisting of five experienced eurythmy therapists and a researcher started a study examining the effects of and experiences with eurythmy therapy in children aged 3 to 18 years.
• During the study, a monitoring procedure was developed that could routinely monitor relevant background characteristics of the participating children and eurythmy therapy- specific effects and experiences reported by parents/care takers (and some teachers).
• In the period March 2019 – July 2021, a total of 101 children participated in the study: 42 children in the age category 3 to 6 years (41.6%), 49 children in the age category 6 to 12 years (48.5%), and 10 children in the age category 12 to 18 years (9.9%).
• Of this group of children there are 26 of whom all questionnaires before and after the treatment were completed (almost) completely by both the eurythmy therapists and the parents/care takers. The results of these 26 children and the total group are described separately. In addition, the results of 7 children with disabilities living in a residential group are also described as a separate group.
• The care questions formulated by the parents/care takers are very diverse and relate to: physical complaints/disabilities, speech problems/language development, emotional problems, general developmental problems, constitutional problems, behavioral problems, fatigue complaints, learning disabilities, concentration problems, and/or sleep disorders.
• In the group of 26, 17 children (65.4%) had never had this therapy before, and 9 children had, of which 3 children (11.5%) once and 6 children (23.1%) several times. In the total group, 53 children (56.4%) had never had this therapy before, and 41 children did have this therapy before, of which 21 children (22.3%) once and 20 children (21.3%) several times. In the group of children with a mental and/or physical disability (N=6), 4 children (66%) had no previous eurythmy therapy and 2 (33%) children had more than 1x eurythmy therapy.
• Statistically significant improvements between eurythmy therapy specific observation items before and after therapy were found for almost all items in the categories physical body, etheric body, astral body, intention, motor skills, eurythmic movements, and practice; both in the group of 26 and in the total group.
Conclusions:
• The care questions formulated by the parents/care takers are very diverse and relate to medical, pedagogical and developmental questions.
• The experiences with eurythmy therapy described by the parents/care takers, teachers and eurythmy therapists are mainly positive.
• There are clear indications that eurythmy therapy is effective in the treatment of the described indications. This is based on quantitative and qualitative analyses and indications of both difference-making evidence (evidence that a change has taken place) and mechanistic evidence (evidence of how the change came about).
• The results of the research provide sufficient justification for follow-up research: theoretical research, psychometric research into the measuring instrument eurythmy therapy-specific observations, routine outcome monitoring in daily practice, and better controlled effect research.
← Alle Publicaties ← Terug