I cannot believe we have already arrived at the week of thanksgiving! Where has the time flown this year! Before you know it I’ll be posting about Christmas. All of the decorations are up, the turkey is soon to be thawing in the fridge, and families are getting ready to travel. If you’re anything like me though, you are still going to be working and doing sessions this week! So, in honor of Thanksgiving I’ve complied a few resources for music therapists. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving! 1. Four Educational Thanksgiving Chants from Tuned Into Learning These four chants work on a variety of concepts including naming colors, counting, sharing, telling time, turn taking, and social skills. I love these adorable chants and FREE printouts! I’ll be using two of them today in my own sessions! 2. Thanksgiving Song Writing Activity from Music Therapy = <3 This song writing activity is a great opportunity for older clients (teens & up) to discuss what they are thankful for, work on expression, identify feelings, and understand what the holiday Read More
Tag: Music Therapy Blog
Top Music Therapy Moments
There is not a single day where I do not love my job. There are moments when it gets tough (i.e. getting instruments thrown at you, working with individuals with terminal diagnoses, when you feel you can’t get through to a client, etc.), but the positive moments FAR outweigh any of the little frustrations or rough situations. Last week I had some amazing music therapy moments that I want to share. Here is one of them! At the start of my shift the other day I was given a referral for individual that had not spoken to anyone in over 24 hours. They refused to say a word to any visitors or staff. When I met with the client, they were hesitant to speak with me, barely even making eye contact or acknowledging my presence. I began singing to the client, using their name and singing what I thought might be familiar songs. I noticed while I was singing that I began to get a few glances. When I asked if they wanted to look at any of the Read More
There’s an App for That! – Music Therapy Ed Course
This past summer we bought an iPad for my business. I was so thrilled!!! At the same time I was terrified! Technology and I have not always had the best relationship but I knew how much my clients would benefit from using an iPad within sessions. Because I had never used an iPad or iPhone before, I had no idea where to start. Thanks to the awesome team at Music Therapy Ed and their 2 iPad courses, I have become much more comfortable using the iPad! Bonnie Hayhurst of The Groovy Garfoose has put together two amazing courses detailing over 150 apps, best practices of how to use the iPad appropriately in sessions, tips on keeping your iPad in tip top shape, and ideas on how to choose the best apps for your clients! Within the courses Bonnie has divided the apps by category. So whether you are looking for an app to support sensory needs, expression, motor development/planning, instruments playing, or nearly anything else, Bonnie shows you that there is certainly an App For That! Bonnie walks you through how Read More
Can You Play It Like This? – Music Therapy Game
The other day I came across a speech therapy website that listed several wonderful interventions, apps, and word lists the therapist was using within sessions. Her lists and ideas got me thinking about some ways I could apply the same ideas within my music therapy sessions. I took the idea for The Action Bag, gave it a musical twist, and used it within my sessions to target the following goal areas: following directions, reading, articulation, eye contact, creativity, expression, gross/fine motor, turn taking, and exploring new vocabulary. You can also adapt this musical game to meet your clients’ specific need! Materials needed: Brown paper bag, markers, paper, scissors, 1 durable instrument (I used an egg shaker) Directions: Decorate the bag however you like. Print out the list of actions available for free download on The Action Bag webpage or create your own list of actions. (I did a little of both and did not include all of the actions listed on the printable page. Use your best discretion when planning for your particular client) Cut apart the actions and place them in Read More
A Spooktacular Story Song Idea
In honor of Halloween, I created an intervention with some spooky themes. This intervention focuses on sequencing events, identifying parts of story, decision making, reading, listening, following directions, and interaction. The story I created was very short and could be extended to meet the needs of any client. I wrote out three sentences then clipped them into small pieces of paper. I created extra nouns so that the client could have a choice of who they wanted in the story. I first gave my client two strips of paper that said “once upon a time” and “the end”. I asked them to put those two phrase on the floor leaving space in the middle for the middle of story. We then added the larger phrases in the middle, sequencing them to appropriately make sense. We finished the story by adding in the missing nouns. The finished story read something like this. The client was asked to identify the parts of the story and assign each part a “spooky” instrument. When I sang the story, the client had Read More