Halloween is right around the corner and there is a hint of Fall in the air (yipee!). Here in Miami that just means the humidity has dropped slightly, but I’ll take it!

Come on over and grab some free Halloween intervention ideas here and then check out this new idea I came up with:

It’s called the Costume Rap. Here’s how it goes:

Lyrics:
On Halloween, I’m gonna dress real cool,
Gonna wear a costume, so don’t be fooled!
On Halloween, I’m gonna dress as ____________.

Here’s how I implemented this intervention:

  1. Set a hip hop beat (or rap track as I love to call them!) to play on your iPod.
  2. Go around to each group member and prompt them to fill in the blank: “On Halloween I’m gonna dress as ______________.” Use a microphone if available! For clients who don’t use words to communicate, record their answer on a voice output device and prompt them to activate it on their turn.
  3. Variation: If you don’t have the equipment to play a hip hop beat, simply set a beat on your keyboard OR use a drum to create your own beat!

This is a simple intervention, but the tweens and teens in my groups loved it!

The main goal is to work on expressive communication skills and the clients loved sharing about their costume and why it was important to them. (Let me tell you, I learned a LOT about Spiderman, Batman and minions!)

As I mentioned in the instructions, this intervention is also a great way to work on non-verbal communication skills through use of a voice output device.

Many of you have mentioned the challenge of coming up with interventions for teen clients towards the severe end of the autism spectrum or for groups with clients of mixed abilities. For my groups, we were able to use this intervention so that all clients could participate and feel successful!

 

If you want to learn more about creating meaningful and engaging interventions that your teen clients will LOVE, check out Tune In To Teens: Creative Ideas for Connection & Music Therapy Session Planning.

Check out everything the course has to offer right here:

Tune In To Teens