Greetings from the Great Smoky Mountains! My husband and I are taking a much needed break to relax, reconnect, and explore this week. While here, I’ve been on the hunt for new instruments and songs that I can take back to use with my clients. I figured this would be a great time to talk about diversity in our music selections.

I admit it; I live in “major” land. My songs start to sound the same after a while. I have my greatest hits and seem to stick with them on a regular basis. Sometimes

Autism Awareness Wrap-Up

Autism awareness month may be over, but the challenges, struggles, and victories that our children with autism face continue well past the month of April. I wanted to take this time to share some of the things I’ve heard from parents of children with autism and things I’ve learned that may help your interactions.

·         See what is possible rather than what’s impossible. Families of children with autism hear a lot of what can’t happen, what their child can’t

Now, our final area of sensory concern: Vestibular.

The semi-circular canals behind your ear drum serve to let you know where you are in space. They tell you when you are standing on your head, moving in different directions (the movement on a swing, the perception of the movement in an elevator, the sway of a boat, etc.), or feeling the pull of gravity. This can impact movement for children. Children with vestibular challenges have difficulty with balance, climbing stairs, navigating

It is time to take you into an area of which you may not be familiar: proprioception.

Proprioception: Proprioception comes from input through your muscles and joints to let your body know where it is in space and what it is doing (Antes, 2012). Antes (2012) compares issues with proprioception with your leg falling asleep. While you can still see and move your leg it doesn’t seem to work the way you want because it is not receiving sensory input. For some of our children their body feels

Touch or Tactile: Tactile sensitivities can impact many of the children with whom we work. Antes (2012) identifies three types of sensory receptors. The first is to light touch. It lets us know if there is a bug on us or if a scarf or feather is brushing across our skin. The second is pressure touch. This lets us know not only how heavy things feel on our skin, but also lets us know what we are touching. The final type is sensitivity to temperature and pain. Together, these types of touch

Auditory: Children can present defensive or seeking behaviors here as well. Defensiveness can be displayed by a child covering their ears when they hear specific sounds, songs, or are in spaces with too much sound (such as the gymnasium). For these children, some sound can be interpreted as painful. Other children seek out sounds. They may place instruments right against their ears or lay their heads on the stereo speakers. They may also make sounds all day to fulfill this sensory need.

Let’s start with visual sensory processing concerns.

Children can present defensive or seeking behaviors. Defensiveness can be displayed by a child covering their eyes when they go outside or when they’re in a situation where there is too much visual stimuli (i.e. too many pictures on the wall, too much movement, too many things going on at a time). Other children will seek out visual stimuli through movement of objects or body parts in their visual field. They may also sit very close to

With the autism rate increasing to 1 in every 88 children and today being Autism Awareness Day (and April is Autism Awareness Month), I thought I’d share a little about the signs and symptoms of autism.

There have been some recent articles which highlight signs of autism which can be detected in children as young as six months of age (Boyles, 2005). For those of us who work with children with autism on a regular basis, this is exciting because it means that we can identify issues and

This week I’ve been pushed outside of what I know best and into areas which are not always comfortable for me. As a therapist I am very comfortable working with children with special needs. I know about other areas of therapy, but they are not what I consider my comfort zone. As a musician, I am very comfortable using music within a therapy session. I know how to make music with children who are typically developing, but it is not necessarily my comfort zone. Knowing all of this, I have

Today I went to the funeral of one of my clients. He contracted an infection which took his life. This is the first time that I have had to say good-bye to a young client forever, but it is not the first time I’ve known children who are medically fragile or are significantly impaired.

When I was a music therapist in a large school system, I implemented an intergenerational program with my school aged clients. Older adults from the local senior center came once a month to share music with

The words fun and passion have been flying around my life lately which makes me think I need to spend a little time on the subject. As professionals, we tend to become bogged down in what needs to be done. What does the curriculum say? What is developmentally appropriate? What is therapeutically beneficial? What is currently popular? We forget the most important aspect of working with children: have some fun!

My thought has always been that the day I stop having fun and the kids stop

I was speaking with some other music professionals this week about co-treatments in therapy and thought about how important it is for all of us to use our friends to help us be more effective in our work.

We can’t know it all. When I left college, I thought I had it all together. I knew what I needed to do to work as a therapist and didn’t need the help or insight of those “other” people. I had the degree and the education. Who needs other people?

Me, that was who. Over the years, I’ve

I had the mom of a client talk to me again this week about a “professional” calling their child retarded. She was obviously upset, but so was I. Granted, this young man has significant cognitive impairments however, using the “R” word is a little harsh in this day and age. Being today is “Spread the word to end the word” day, I felt it was a great time to share this post.

The DSM –IV-TR still states mental retardation as a viable diagnosis for children and adults with below average

I had an observer in one of my preschool music sessions over the weekend. It’s always nice to see what we do through the eyes of someone else. One of their comments prompted today’s post.

Learning to Wait.

Most children are pretty quick and catch on to what we are presenting fairly quickly. They sing along by the second verse of a song and follow our motions as we prompt them. Other children need more time to process what they are hearing. There are several reasons why this may happen.

I’m sure some of you are wondering where instruments come in with movement. Personally, I see most of what I do in music connected to movement. It just may not be what everyone else thinks about!

Many of the children I see have special needs. They may have challenges in motor, communication, social, or other skill areas. Using tools like scarves and instruments can make movement motivating and rewarding. The following are a few examples of how instruments can be used to achieve movement in

A whole post on the treasure of tambourines. Who would think there would be so much to say? That would be me!

Tambourines are great. They are versatile and provide all kinds of different stimulation for our kids. They make sound easily which is great for kids who have limited mobility or motor control. One little tap and they get a wonderful sound. If you are using a tambourine with a head they can also get the physical reinforcement of their efforts through the feel of the head on their

Now, some instruments. This may take a few posts. I have a big red suitcase filled with instruments which I use in my everyday sessions. Some of my favorites are shakers. I have all kinds of shakers in my “kit”. Here are a few of the ones I use the most.

Shakin’ Eggs: These little gems are perfect. They are kid size. They come in all kinds of colors and are affordable. When working with kids with special needs I like that they form perfectly to help develop their grasp patterns. I use them

What better way to get to know a new music therapist than by knowing the tools they find work best with young children. In a series of postings I’m going to share some of my “go to” tools.

Scarves

I know. What crazy person starts a music blog without talking about songs or instruments? I guess that would be me. I own scarves in all kinds of colors and sizes. Tiny 12 inch squares, medium 24 inch squares, and giant 36 inch squares. Each size suits its own purpose within my sessions and all