The “Yellow Brick Road” was a familiar phrase that was a treat to watch for my brother and I growing up. Essentially,  Dorthy needed to and wanted to go home. She ended up in an unfamiliar, unpredictable place and apparently ,the “Yellow Brick Road” wouldn’t get her directly home, but it would get her to… Read more »

Process versus product. Generally when I give an introductory talk about Music Therapy, I begin by making the comparisons between Music for Leisure, Music Education, and Music Therapy. Music for Leisure is a passive type of music which I am going to leave alone today. Music Education and Music Therapy are active processes and very… Read more »

This weekly blog is about change, development, and growth and recognizing them.  Not only recognizing them, but attending to their significance in each individual. Sometimes when working with special needs children, most specifically in this case children on the spectrum, there comes a point in which growth appears to have come to a stand still,… Read more »

     Click here to hear Charles’s Song: Charles Song( Next click; ste-002) Little Charles likes to leave me a gift before every holiday. He always does something unexpected, yet highly needed the last session before each holiday. This last session before Easter break, non-verbal Charles said his first word while climbing the stairs -“up”. Charles… Read more »

This week I thought I would show a video of one of the previously mentioned children that had “pop out words” and how we arrived there.  As I began working with Jay, I worked toward attending, giving eye contact to the therapist when addressed, playing instruments or moving to the music and also giggling or… Read more »

This week I ended up having two small groups of higher functioning four year old children with autism diagnosis. As I began the session and watched each group member, I quickly readjusted my plan. I knew exactly what  we were going to work on and how to work on skills such as sharing, taking turns, transitioning and… Read more »

It recently was reported to me by three different family’s of non-verbal, autistic children with whom I work, of the commencement of “pop out words” that began (outside the Music Therapy room) as the child began Music Therapy sessions. This is the only change that each child seemed to have undergone as these words started… Read more »

I have talked in many of my blogs on behavior being communication, stim behaviors as being useful and each person being unique, label or not. In today’s blog, I would like to show you an example of how utilizing music therapy has helped put these concepts into practice. In October 2011, I acquired a four year old , non-verbal, autistic little… Read more »

I had to send this out today. As I was finishing sending my last newsletter out, my daughter was in the room talking to me about school. She read to me this essay she wrote . She chose a subject she enjoys and it seemed to link to my last newsletter very well. (She had… Read more »

What is beyond the diagnosis? All that lingo; Developmental Delay, Self stimulatory Behaviors, Communication Delay, Echoic Speech, Sensory Processing Disorder, what lies beyond that? Who really are these children? When a new child walk into a classroom, a good teacher of course, wants to be as well equipped as possible. If records, or IEP’s are available, a good teacher… Read more »