Week Two

Day 4:

On Monday, I helped one of the music therapist students run a session for the four preschool boys. I made them name tags, which they sat down with. Everyone had a name tag to show that we are all equal. We sang about the colors of food and other colors in the room. We also took turns playing with boomwhackers and acknowledging colors. To get their energy out, we shook, clapped, and jumped. One activity that was pretty interactive was reading a book by singing the words and having the boys count the frogs on each page. They guessed the names and sounds of instruments while facing away, too, which didn't go very well, but they certainly loved playing the little drum! We then sang goodbye to everyone in the room. Compared to last week, there was a lot of progress. The room was made a safe place from the moment they walked through the door. They were even comfortable sharing their emotions (one said he was sad). We sang an emotions song and acknowledged that it's okay to be happy, sad, or tired.

For the next few sessions, I'm preparing songs on the piano to accompany the music therapists.

Day 5:

For a few hours I continued making the visual aid folders.

I then went to the drum circle class. I learned more about the protocol of the Health Rhythms class.

They introduce the program to establish what will happen during the class, which is to relieve stress. The wellness exercise is to make yourself present in the environment. The students used healing metaphors to move from the wellness exercise to the ice breaker, which is supposed to establish a fun and safe place. The A-B-Cs of drumming are meant to remind you not to hurt yourself while drumming. Rhythmic naming is used to get more personal with the group. For example, someone can say they like chocolate and then drum something, and the class then repeats this. Entrainment building is drumming together as a group. Once the class gets to Inspirational Beats, the group can start sharing things because a level of trust and comfort has been established. Guided Imagery Drumming is using a lot of adjectives in sentences while drumming to make the listeners feel relaxed, as if they are experiencing what is being said. The next wellness exercise is to make sure everyone is okay again, and then they say goodbye.

On Thursday, I got to lead part of the circle and control the rhythms and dynamics, which I loved!

Day 6:

The elderly people used instruments to describe how they were feeling, and the group repeated the sound to acknowledge how each person is feeling. Like in the drumming class, the music therapy students used a technique known as call and response. The therapist sings something, and the group repeats it. They then sang a song about love, and held up the letters to spell the word. Next week, I'm going to play a song on the piano while one of the therapists plays it on the guitar! I'm super excited. 

I went back to the clinic and observed 2 boys with Autism. Last week, the first boy didn't cooperate, while the second boy did. This week they seemed to switch places. While the sessions are individual, both have 13 year old boys with Autism. It's interesting to watch how their behaviors still differ.