Today’s blog post title is a bit of a mouthful, I’ll admit.

But stick around, because this pop song spotlight is a good one.

After taking a look last week at how Snoop Dogg’s new kids album can be used therapeutically, I’m going to share some songs today that can be used to work on those ever-important attention skills.

Attention skills are a primary area of focus when I’m working with middle and high school students because these skills transfer directly to the classroom.

They’re needed to ensure our students can maintain focus on a  quiz through to completion (sustained attention!), or tune out chatter in the hallway so they can focus on their teacher’s instructions (selective attention!)

One way I work on this in my music therapy sessions with tweens and teens is to sing a popular or preferred song and give them a word or phrase to listen for. When they hear that word or phrase, they’re instructed to raise their instruments in the air (or switch instruments with a friend, or whatever instruction you’d like them to follow).

This gives students the opportunity to practice selective attention by focusing in on and listening for a specific word or phrase.

Here are a few of the recent songs I’ve used for this experience:

Taylor Swift “Shake It Off”

OneRepublic “I Ain’t Worried”

Tai Verdes “A-O-K”

Beyonce “Love On Top”

Imagine Dragons “Enemy”

For each of the above songs, students are listening for the word or phrase that is the title, so this makes it pretty straightforward. These words are repeated throughout the song, giving them plenty of opportunities to practice the objective behavior.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share more popular songs and how I’ve been using them to meet therapeutic goals in my sessions with tweens and teens, middle and high schoolers.

If these ideas are sparking your interest, then you’ll be glad to know that the doors for The Attention & Perception E-Course will be opening very soon (mid-May). Yay!

Join the waitlist by entering your name and email below, so you don’t miss when the doors for enrollment are open.

When you join the waitlist, you’ll hear about special discounts and promotions, and how you can access free bonus material.

Plus, you’ll receive a Pop Song Rhythms freebie right away, so you can get a sneak peek of the materials you’ll have access to inside the course.

Lynda Miller, MT-BC had this to say about the course:

“Thank you for creating The Attention and Perception E-Course!  I have been encouraged, inspired, and moved to action by the way you presented this subject.  Instructions to “Stop now and fill out creativity worksheet” were effective and I used several of the ideas that same week.  My clients have responded positively to both the interventions and my renewed excitement.  Your E-Course has been worth every penny and my clients  and I thank you!”

And Kaitlyn Southgate, a music teacher, shared this with me:

“I found that everything was clearly explained and loved the examples that followed. I would definitely recommend the course to others. I personally feel much more prepared to work with these young clients and feel that this course would provide anyone with fantastic new approaches. Thank you for another wonderful course!”

More than 400 music therapists, educators, and professionals have taken Wholesome Harmonies E-Courses and successfully put the ideas into use in their sessions and classrooms.

If you’re interested in learning more about the E-Course, be sure to hop on the wait list now!