Paperwork. Ahh one of the great joys of being a music therapist! This blog post is all about goals and objectives and a few things I’ve learned to make life a little easier in that department.

Since my full-time job is in the school setting I work very closely with the teachers and consult the IEPs to ensure I am directly and consistently targeting academic goals. When I first started out, although I found it easy to address the academic concepts in my sessions, I found it hard to accurately chart progress towards these goals.

Here’s the deal – one week the teachers were covering rhyming words, the next week they were working on opposites, and the next they were working on addition. Therefore, I wasn’t always targeting the same academic concepts in my sessions each week. Thus was born…the TASK ANALYSIS.

This has helped my clearly and accurately assess which academic concepts are being targeted and mastered during my sessions. Here’s an example of an Academic Task Analysis I might use for the Kindergarten class:

Goal: To increase knowledge of academic concepts

Objective: Client S. will complete 1 of the 5 steps in the Academic Task Analysis during one session

Academic Task Analysis
1. Correctly identify a rhyming word
2. Correctly match a numeral to quantity
3. Correctly identify 2 colors
4. Correctly identify 2 body parts
5. Count to 10

I love the Task Analysis because it allows me to work within the framework of an academic goal, but also allows me the freedom to change up the concept as the teachers changes it in the classroom. The Task Analysis can be used in any goal area we address during music therapy. I use a Social Skills Task Analysis and even a Handwriting Task Analysis (for my Occupational Therapy co-treatment sessions).

Has the Task Analysis been helpful in YOUR work as a music therapist?

 

 

Image courtesy of [luigi dimanti] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net