Are you still humming “It’s always better when we’re together?”

That’s the theme of last week’s blog post and this week’s blog post: how to make the most of your collaborations with other professionals.

I love, love, LOVE co-treating with other therapists – speech language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTs), physical therapists (PTs) and ABA therapists.

I have grown so much by co-treating with these professionals. And, my clients have benefitted from us all providing an integrated team approach.

Check out these videos demonstrating sensory integration techniques that I learned from co-treating with an OT at United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Miami.

You can see examples of how to provide vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile stimulation. You can watch examples of how to incorporate the therapy ball into your music therapy sessions, paint brushes, gathering drum and even the trampoline (my clients’ favorite!)

What are some tips on approaching collaboration with other therapists? Here are a few ideas I have to get your started:

1. Explain your goals in non-musical terms

As music therapists, we know our clients are not “just” singing a fun song, they’re practicing clear articulation of bilabial sounds. We know our clients aren’t “just” playing the drums, they’re working on bilateral coordination and receiving tactile input every time their hand hits the drum. Be clear about the non-musical goals you’re addressing, and speak in terms that the other therapists are using.

2.Learn their goals

When you’re working with the same client as another therapist, ask to see a copy of their evaluation report and progress notes. Take a look at the goals and objectives, so you can see how you could potentially target those goals or similar goals in your sessions. I recently heard from a parent who said their child had reached a plateau in speech therapy. The child’s music therapist spoke with the SLP about the speech therapy goals, one of which was to speak 3-4 word utterances. The music therapist brought in a singable story (a song paired with the book “From Head to Toe”), which encouraged the child to sing, then chant, and then say the phrase “I can do it!” multiple times throughout the story.

3. Work together

Set up a time to discuss how you can collaborate. I had the opportunity to co-treat with SLPs, OTs and PTs when I worked at UCP and it was amazing. We worked together in both individual and group settings. If you don’t have that option where you work, set up a time to chat on the phone. You can share some techniques that may work in their sessions and hear what they’re working on in their sessions.

I truly believe it’s better when we all work together.

Now I’d love to hear from you!

Do you co-treat with other therapists? Leave a comment below and let us know how you work together and how it’s benefitted your clients.

The post Making the Most of Professional Collaborations (Part 2 – with therapists) appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

In it I showcased a video of me utilizing the therapy ball in my music therapy session with a self-contained class of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)! I am using the therapy ball to provide proprioceptive and vestibular input to the children while the music is organizing the whole experience.

Catch up on that video here!

Today I am sharing a video that incorporates music, a book, a drum, and paintbrushes. Click here to watch what it’s all about:

But as we gradually introduced this kind of stimulation in small amounts, the children became more tolerant of it.

In this experience, in addition to providing tactile stimulation with the paint brushes, we are also working on identifying body parts and expressive language (“open the book!”)

Notice how I’m using the drum to accompany myself? The guitar is too over stimulating for this class, so I usually sing a cappella or accompany myself with a small egg shaker or drum.

The book I used in this activity is called “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More” by Karen Beaumont.

Now I want to hear from YOU! How do you incoroprate sensory integration into your music therapy sessions?

Be sure to check out the Sensational Songs & Activities E-Book for more sensory ideas, sheet music, & themed session plans

The post Sensational Ideas for Working With Children with Autism (Part 2) appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Happy Social Media Advocacy Month!

What an exciting month it was been so far! Last week, Ben Folds declared it #FollowMTWeek and has been surprising and delighting us with tweets and Facebook posts galore. (He even tweeted and posted THIS BLOG POST to his Facebook page!!)

This year, the theme for Social Media Advocacy Month is connection.

The stories that come to mind are the connections I have made with other therapeutic disciplines and the connections that have been made by the children I work with when music therapy is “added to the mix.”

I have the privilege of working in a preschool early intervention program and charter school for children with special needs, Early Beginnings Academy (part of UCP Miami). At Early Beginnings, I co-treat with occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT) and speech therapy (ST).

Each time I co-treat a connection is formed, bridging music therapy to the other disciplines.

These co-treatments allow me to see how how these disciplines can inform our practice as music therapists and provide us with sound ideas, but they also allow me to see how music therapy can truly support OT/PT/ST activities.

Here are some of my stories of connection…

Music therapy and Occupational therapy

Last year I took part in a music therapy/OT co-treatment with two boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The OT showed me one of the experiences she often uses with her children with ASD – jumping on the trampoline and then “crashing” onto a water bed. This activity is used to provide kinesthetic and proprioceptive input for children who are sensory-seeking. I observed her facilitating this activity and brainstormed how I could “add” music to the mix.

In this experience, music could function as an organizer for the activity AND I could use certain musical elements to cue the child’s behavior.

When I jumped in we had the child stand up on the trampoline and wait for me. I strummed a slow V7 chord (a dominant chord filled with anticipation) as I sang “Aaaaaand….” Then moved to the I chord as I sang “Go!! I want to jump, jump, jump, up and down! I want to jump, jump, jump, up and down.” While singing this, I played a steady, rhythmic slap strum to cue the movement of jumping up and down. Then I strummed the V7 chord again slowly while singing “Aaaaaand crash!!” That was the child’s cue to take their last jump on the trampoline and “crash” on to the water bed.

Here’s how the music is working:

The musical form provides clear structure to organize this experience. (The child knows they will jump for the whole first verse…and then it will be time to crash). The V7 chord cues the child to start jumping and cues the child to crash. The lyrics cue each different movement (jump, crash). The rhythmic beat provides organization and grounds the experience, and the tempo tells the child how fast to be jumping. All these musical elements work together to create an experience that is appropriate for the child and one that is clear even without verbal cueing: the music does the cueing!

(Would you like to see videos of my OT co-treatment sessions? They will be part of my course coming soon to MusicTherapyEd.com!!)

Music therapy and Speech therapy

I have also participated in a music therapy/ST co-treatment where we used a modified version of Rhythmic Speech Cueing to facilitate the child speaking in a complete sentence. We hit the drum one time for each word in the sentence: “My name is Amy.” Hitting the drum one time for each word ensures that the child clearly speaks each word in the sentence (rather than saying “My name Amy” – sometimes it’s easy to leave out “is”!). The motor movement (playing the drum) also serves to cue the speech output (singing/speaking the sentence).

You can watch this video here!

I have also modified this activity during music therapy/ST co-treatments to work on clear articulation of each syllable in a given word. The child would be instructed to hit the drum one time for each syllable of the word “hi-ppo-po-ta-mus” for example.

These examples are some of my favorites to use when telling others about the connection between music therapy and other therapeutic disciplines. Just as OTs, PTs, and SLPs give us ideas for activities and goals in their discipline, we as music therapists can demonstrate how music can structure and organize an experience. We can also show how specific musical elements can cue behaviors and speech output.

Working together with shared goals in mind improves our skills as clinicians and improves the experience and outcome for the children with whom we work.

Do you co-treat with other therapeutic disciplines? What are your stories of connection? Leave a comment below…

The post Music Therapy Builds Connections appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Here are some of my favorite resources when it comes to designing interventions that target occupational therapy goals:

Sensory Processing Disorder website has so much good information, it’s almost overwhelming! Here are some of the highlights of the website:

Symptoms Checklist
Treatment Activities
Proprioception
What is Occupational Therapy Anyways?
The Latest Sensory Processing Disorder Research

Therapy Street for Kids is a user-friendly site that provides lots of creative ideas for how to incorporate OT goals into music therapy sessions. Categories include: fine motor strength, finger isolation, bilateral coordination, pre-writing skills, etc. Check it out!

Education.com covers a myriad of topics related to children, education, and therapy. The link below is specific to goals addressed during OT:
Goals of Occupational Therapy

What are YOUR go-to sites when it comes to finding ideas for addressing OT goals in your sessions?

The post Favorite Resources for Addressing…Occupational Therapy Goals appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.