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A survey of 80 graduates of an Australian popular music degree revealed that graduates had a deep understanding of the value of soft skills to their employability and musical livelihoods. Soft skills are defined here as interpersonal and intrapersonal transferrable skills such as effective collaboration and communication, as opposed to the hard skills related to the technical requirements of a specific task. On breaking down the curriculum and pedagogical framework of the degree over its 3-year delivery, it is shown that the self-directed, collaborative and peer-learning environment is a major contributor to that understanding. The interpersonal and intrapersonal soft skills identified by graduates as essential outcomes of their learning are crucial to navigate the uncertainties of the portfolio career most music students will progress into. Embedding collaborative and entrepreneurial elements across all courses in the program content ensures they become intuitive practice for graduates, applicable across the range of roles they may engage with throughout their musical livelihoods.

In the face of looming environmental catastrophe, music educators have an obligation to support students in finding ways to navigate and respond to environmental change through their practice. Data from a survey of popular music students in an Australian higher music education institution showed that while students held serious concerns about environmental threats, they did not feel empowered to address these through their music and could not envisage a role for music education to support them to do so. It is proposed that a praxial pedagogical framework informed by critical pedagogy, and supported through the Students as Partners approach, would help popular music students to develop their musician activist identities and empower them to respond to the challenges of a changing climate through their art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centrality of relationships (the integration of relationship-based concepts at the program, family, and child levels) is proposed as an organizing principle for the field of early intervention with children having disabilities. The shift from developmental deficit-based models to relationship-based organizing principles requires reformulating intervention approaches and program models. This perspective stresses commonalities across early intervention disciplines. (Author/DB)

Aims of study were (1) test for independence in infant's attachment to parent, (2) test concept of security by viewing infants judged secure versus insecure with mother in situation designed to arouse apprehension, (3) examine effects of infant-parent relationships upon positive responsiveness to new persons, and (4) identify characteristics of infants judged unclassifiable within Ainsworth system. (Author/MP)

Some children are brought to pediatric care services more often than others. Although the presence of an illness is the main reason for using pediatric health care services, common childhood illnesses are not distributed evenly among users. There is a small percentage of users who have a greater variety and number of illnesses. Children of parents who are anxious about health, or who have had an experience with a serious illness early in life are seen more often in pediatric health care services. This pattern of health care utilization is likely to continue throughout childhood and into adulthood. To see if the quality of early mother-infant attachment influences the use of pediatric health care services, 56 mother-infant pairs were studied. The quality of mother-infant attachment was assessed using the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Trained observers classified the responses of the mothers and infants after they were reunited following eight increasingly stressful situations experienced by the infant. The mother-infant bond was considered secure in 17 pairs and anxiously attached in 39 pairs. The infants' medical records for the first 12 months of life were studied. Pediatric health care services were used more often and earlier in the anxiously attached mother-infant pairs. Acute care visits were made at an average 3.8 months of age for anxiously attached infants, compared with 6.5 months for infants of securely attached pairs. The number of acute care visits in the anxiously attached pairs was 3.6 compared with 1.9 in the securely attached pairs. The number of well-child visits was the same in both groups. Both groups of mothers made visits for similar symptoms and illnesses. Although anxious mothers made more visits for their infants, the illnesses were not more severe. There was no association between prenatal and birth experiences and pediatric care use and the quality of attachment. The findings indicate that there is a relationship between mother-infant attachment and the use of pediatric health care services. Early recognition of poor mother-infant bonding will be helpful in planning comprehensive evaluations and providing interventions that can improve the mother-infant relationship. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

There is growing evidence that participatory music can be supportive and empowering for marginalised, culturally diverse populations. Amid largely hostile reception of asylum seekers in Australia, a group of music facilitators regularly attends an Immigration Transit Accommodation facility to share music and singing activities with detained asylum seekers, to counter significant mental and emotional distress resulting from indefinite detention. Methods This paper outlines the key themes of a narrative analysis, from a health and wellbeing perspective, of music facilitators' monthly written observations recorded in 2012. Results By drawing on examples from observational narratives, we outline a framework that suggests links between music and singing, and the health and wellbeing of detained asylum seekers. The framework includes four intertwined concepts: (1) Humanisation, (2) Community, (3) Resilience, and (4) Agency. Conclusions The framework suggests the potential for participatory music to counter the significant impact of traumatic experiences and detention on asylum seekers' health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]