Specific characteristics of children social and psychological rehabilitation by means of music therapy during and after the war

Abstract

The article outlines the relevance of a social and psychological support and rehabilitation for the children who have suffered from a full-scale military invasion of the Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. The psycho-traumatic effects of the war on a child’s mental and physical development have been described: stress, anxiety, crisis condition and post-traumatic stress disorder. The social and psychological rehabilitation is determined to be aimed at helping the adults and children, who have survived the trauma, obtain the abilities of mental recovery, the skill to deal with the stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and alerts. The authors pay their attention to the effective implementation of various types of artistic and creative work (art therapy) in a rehabilitation work with children. It provides living through and revealing the negative feelings and preventing the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. Music therapy is determined as an art and therapeutic method of social and psychological rehabilitation which shows a maximum supporting recovery of a child’s positive attitude to himself, society, life, and forming secondary mental disorders (an aptitude to self-isolation, aggression). The article presents specific aspects of the musical compositions use at social and psychological rehabilitation (activating, relaxing, soothing) and emphasizes on Lo-fi hip-hop that is a subgenre of downtempo and combines hip-hop and chillout. The attention is focused on the main calming effect of the lofi music that is provided by both even and aggressive bits and a sound background to deep into the atmosphere of spiritual balance (birdsongs, thunderstorm, wind sounds, the crackle of a fire and others). It is proved that listening to the lofi music is of a significant therapeutic effect, proceeding from the improvement of cognitive functions, the stress reduction and the harmony of emotional state. The aim of the genre lies not in entertaining but helping a person find a calm area in uncontrolled digital and physical environment. Having evaluated the scientists’ attempts to describe the issue, we underline the idea of the organization of children social and psychological rehabilitation who suffered from military operations by means of music therapy instruments, to be within the need of theoretical justification of pedagogical conditions. It is the perspective of a further scientific search.