by Rachel | Uncategorized
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how fiercely my students become attached to certain books, songs, and activities, but it never ceases to amaze me that they can be just as amused today with “Eight Silly Monkeys” as they were 18 months ago.
One of my students in particular is very attached to that book, along with “Down by the Station”. Every week, I pull out new books in the hopes that he will move on, but it just hasn’t happened yet. He will happily listen to the new book, even participate and answer my questions, but when it’s over, he will without fail walk over to my bookshelf and pull out the two old standbys. He will flip through the pages, hum the melody to himself, even answer the questions he remembers me asking about the book. Then he’ll close the first one and move on to the second book, doing the same.
I’ve considered my options: 1) remove the books from the shelf, 2) stop him when he goes to take them off the shelf, or 3) continue to let him do what he’s been doing. For now, I’m sticking with option 3 because he is not resitant to the new books, and his skimming through the old ones only adds about three minutes total to the session. He completes every task I present to him, and his behavior is almost always impeccable during individual music therapy.
So what would you do?
by Rachel | Uncategorized
There’s a student at Hope named Jermaine. Jermaine is probably the most enthusiastic student I see all week, both at school and in private practice. In fact, his clapping was so enthusiastic that his teachers asked him to tap his knees instead, so that his peers weren’t distracted during music therapy.
Jermaine absolutely loves music, and over the last two years I have made him countless CDs of my songs. He knows all of them by heart, and will often request the songs by name. Today he asked me to sing the song “I Will be Your Friend”, which I hadn’t sung or even thought about in months and months. But another student echoed his request, so I began singing the song. I got through the first verse, and then completely blanked on the second verse. Jermaine was there to save the day – he took over as lead singer, and belted out the second and third verses.
When the song was through, Jermaine raised his hand. I called on him. “Yes, Jermaine. Do you have a question?” (He will often ask me questions in between songs.) He replied, “Miss Rachel, you encourage my heart every time you sing.”
Actually, it’s the other way around…do I really need to explain why I love my job?
by Rachel | Uncategorized
…you’re in the middle of a session with a student, and out of your mouth (and guitar) comes a complete song about playing the tambourine, perfect rhymes and all. I realized when Ryan reached “instruments” on his schedule that I hadn’t planned a song to sing while he played, preferably one that worked on directions (up and down) and speed (slow and fast). Well I guess I didn’t need to, because my magical music therapy powers did it for me on the spot :)
I actually liked the song so much that I’m going to put it in writing as soon as I finish up this post. I’ve written quite a few songs this week in preparation for March, many of which I’m excited about sharing with you all in the coming days. Stay tuned!
by Rachel | Uncategorized
Okay, so you’ve seen the title of this post and are probably wondering: what is so wonderful about the song “Three Blue Pigeons” that it merits a spot in Friday Faves? The answer is nothing, really, except that this simple fingerplay triggered a breakthrough moment for a little boy named Carter.
Three-year-old Carter is diagnosed with autism, and I’ve been providing music therapy for him over the past eight months. Carter didn’t say much in those first few months, but his words are coming fast and furious these days. From day one, he has demonstrated a love for music, especially the guitar, and his attention span has increased tremendously. Although he has been making eye contact with me and other visible progress during our sessions for a while now, nothing came close to what happened on Wednesday afternoon.
I was a little hesitant to sing the aforementioned “Three Blue Pigeons” with Carter that day, because he had not shown interest in that particular song in the past. But I went ahead and did it anyway, since imitating movements is one of his goals. As I started singing and doing the hand motions, Carter watched me closely. Then, he held up three fingers. He made the sign for “sit”. He waved his arms like a bird, just as I did. And then he continued to perform the movements for the remainder of the song. Halfway through, I snuck a glance at his aunt, who was holding him and watching in disbelief. By the end of the song, she was in tears and I was close behind…it was one of those moments that music therapists live for.
This was a lesson in persistance. As a therapist, it’s easy to dismiss an activity, song, or intervention as useless, just like I almost did with “Three Blue Pigeons”. In this case, the 10th time was a charm. Never completely rule something out…I know I won’t make that mistake again.
