I am very pleased to announce that Rockin' and Readin' at the Library is back!! I started the program last year with my colleague and friend, Amber Ewers. The program will begin running in December and we will be providing music therapy sessions at various library branches throughout Miami-Dade County. Yahoo! The sessions will focus on early [...]
Tuesday November 8th was opening day for our Halloween Musical, entitled "In the Woods." Many of our parents, grandparents, and family members showed up to support the children (and take lots and lots...and LOTS of pictures). I have never been so proud of my children! They were fabulous! To catch up, check out The Making [...]
Tactile Stimulation Today I am starting a series about "sense-ational" music therapy activities. Many of the children I work with at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy have a diagnosis of severe and profound intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder. Both groups of children benefit from what we call "sensory based" activities - activities that tap into [...]
Our Halloween Musical is well on its way to being ready for opening day! Although Halloween was officially Monday, our performance date is set for Tuesday November 8th. Between trick-or-treating and our harvest festival at UCP, we had plenty planned for October 31st already! In The Making of our Halloween Musical ~ Part 1, I shared how the [...]
The fall holidays are by far my favorite ones to celebrate! Although it doesn't always feel like fall in Miami, I still find ways to incorporate harvest and Halloween themes into my sessions at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. This year, I decided to be bold and try something I've never tried before...a Halloween Musical! This [...]
Today I'd like to share an intervention from one of my individual music therapy sessions at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. This song was written by my former intern, colleague at UCP, and friend, Amber Ewers and she has graciously allowed me to share it with you today. The first goal we are working on during this [...]
I was pondering this question last week as I watched one of my clients dig into my bag of goodies and start pulling out drums one by one. He began setting up drums of various shapes, sizes, and colors so it looked like a drum set: large gathering drum in the middle, surrounded by lollipop [...]
Letter songs are always a hit with my children at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. Learning the alphabet and recognizing letters are a huge topic for any preschooler or kindergartener! The teachers at Early Beginnings use a program called BELL (Building Early Language and Literacy) to teach phonological awareness, letter recognition, print awareness, and reading skills. I [...]
Shapes are a very important topic for my children at UCP. Circles, squares, triangles - you name it, they're learning about it! Here is a song called "Shapes, Shapes" (how creative!) that I wrote to help facilitate the process of learning shapes. Click here if you'd like to purchase the sheet music and use this song [...]
Music therapy with the baby and toddler class at UCP is one of my favorite groups of the week. I get to see them meet so many developmental milestones, which is amazing - I feel like a proud mama! Our music therapy sessions focus on the following developmental areas: - Moving to music - Social skills: giving [...]
