When Wendy Zieve visits Forrest Neander of north Seattle, she comes
equipped with a bag of tricks: drums, xylophones, hoops, ribbons and
more. During each session, Zieve, a board-certified music therapist
(MT-BC), uses tuneful tactics to engage 5-year-old Forrest, who has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal.
One time, Zieve gave Forrest an instrument with a pressure switch that
activated a tape recorder. She sang, "There were nine in the bed and
the little one said..."
On cue, Forrest hit the switch, playing the recorded words to complete
the refrain, "Roll over." To his mother, Julia Neander, it was almost
as if he were singing.
"[Music therapy] is a communication tool for Forrest," Neander says.
"It gives him an opportunity to get involved in something. He has
really limited communication and motor skills, so he can't engage in a
lot of play that most children do on their own. It's an important part
of his therapy regime."
Zieve defines music therapy as "a research-based, prescribed use of
music-related strategies to assist specific nonmusical goals." Research
shows specific ways music can be used to facilitate progress with
language, cognitive, social, and fine and gross motor skills. According
to Zieve, "Many parts of the brain are engaged when listening to and
playing music," so kids often respond to it more effectively than other
forms of therapy.
For example, Zieve says, many kids with autism have trouble answering
questions such as "What?" "Where?" and "Why?" It's been shown that
those kids are often able to process a sung request but not a spoken
question. To demonstrate, Zieve sings: "Johnny wants a scarf; which one
will he pick?" She says, "If you just speak it, they will shy away, but
if you sing it, they engage."
Music is uniquely motivating, says Jennifer Hastings, MT-BC, of Music
Works Northwest in Bellevue. "Often people use food or a token system
as a motivator. The unique thing about music therapy is that music is
the enforcer." With most of her clients, the goal is improving
communication. For example, Hastings describes working with a 21/2-year
old boy with autism who initially would cry most of the session and
want to leave. At first he didn't speak at all and would push her hands
away from the piano, but gradually over the last three months he's been
saying more words or sounds, laughing and initiating interaction.
"Recently, he has started grabbing my hands and putting them on the
instrument to play with him," Hastings says. "The other day, he took my
hand and made my finger point to the guitar. He sculpted my hand into a
point and pointed to the guitar and said, ''tar.' He's telling me what
he wants with words, which he's never done before."
Music therapists describe the process of goal-setting as collaborative.
When working with parents of kids with special needs, "We look at where
their child is, what his or her strengths are, and areas where they
would like to see improvement," says Patti Catalano, MT-BC, whose
clients range from infants to octogenarians. Catalano says babies "are
very responsive to music activities, so you have the opportunity to do
things that will help them down the line." Activities Catalano uses
with infants include songs with a steady beat such as "Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star," finger plays and familiar tunes that the babies associate
with someone they love.
For Mindie McDonnell of Seattle, whose 15-year-old son Guy has autism,
music therapy is a fun way to build her son's language and life skills.
Music therapist Zieve created a 12-verse life-skills song based on a
familiar melody with a pattern that helps Guy remember the message:
Pick up the newspaper
Put it in the garbage
Pick up the plate
Scrape it in the garbage
Pick up clothes
Put them in the hamper...
Zieve says, "When his mother wants him to do those chores, she sings a
bit of the clean-up song and he remembers." The song helps Guy take
part in the social life of his family, she adds.
Based on her experience with music therapy, McDonnell says that parents
of kids with special needs should know "that their kids are capable of
this, and with the right direction they can have new experiences and
successes, and a satisfying increase in their abilities."
Zieve also helps her students relate to their peers through activities
that teach names, turn taking, partnering, group cooperation, listening
and soloing. McDonnell says that for her son, participating in music
therapy in group settings, such as at the Aim High for Kids Respite
Care Home in Shoreline, has been most effective. Taking a turn on the
xylophone, being featured socially and passing the instrument
appropriately to the next child are challenging social goals for kids
with autism, Zieve adds.
As McDonnell puts it, music therapy combines melody with meaning: "It's
most beneficial for modeling and creating happy time and relationships,
because that's really a hard thing for kids with autism. There's not a
lot of playtime, and there aren't a lot of friendships."
Parents and therapists say that for kids with special needs, music
therapy can open the door to emotions, in a variety of settings. At
Seattle's Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, music
therapist David Knott, MT-BC, helps kids and their families adjust to
the hospital. Whether working with a child who has cancer, a ruptured
appendix or is in physical therapy, Knott tailors the level of activity
and interactivity to the child's condition. "I think the essence of
music therapy is when the music therapist is able to assess what is the
most needed service for them," Knott says. "If they're feeling pretty
good, they can do something fun; they can improve their emotion with
the instrument. But if they're in a lot of pain, you can still use
music to give a calm, grounding stimulus they can focus on and take
their mind off the pain for a while."
Perhaps best of all, music therapy can help kids with special needs
access pure happiness. For kids with many therapies in their schedule,
music combines therapy with pleasure. Christine Roberts, a local early
childhood dance educator and mother of Samuel, a 10-year-old who was
brain-injured from the pertussis vaccine as an infant, urges parents of
kids with special needs to consider music therapy.
"If [parents] want to bring joy to their special-needs child, there's
no better pathway than music and dance," she says.
Michelle Feder writes about a wide variety of subjects. She has 4-year-old and 9-month-old sons.
Music therapist Wendy Zieve will be teaching a music therapy class at
Soundbridge in Seattle's Benaroya Hall on March 22 from 4-6 p.m. The
class will address how music can address goals in social skills, motor
skills, language and communication, as well as cognitive areas. The
material answers the question, "What can music do for my child?" For
more information or to register, call 206-336-6650.
Music therapy resources:
American Music Therapy Association,www.musictherapy.org Introduces and describes music therapy in various settings.
Music Therapy Association of Washington, www.musictherapy.org/regions.html
This Web site is under construction but will eventually include a
referral directory listing all board-certified music therapists in the
state.
Wendy Zieve,
MT-BC (board-certified music therapist), has worked in public schools,
group homes, park programs and private practice. She can be reached at
206-364-3734.
Music Works Northwest,www.musicworksnw.org
Non-profit community music school in Bellevue, offers music therapy for
people of all ages. Clients are actively engaged in a therapeutic arts
process that may include songwriting, improvisation, singing and/or
instrument playing, and receptive listening. Call 425-644-6869, Ext.
158.
Patti Catalano, MT-BC, is a music therapist in private practice who works with people of all ages. 425-836-8858,
.
Movement and Music with Your Special Needs Child,
taught by Christine Roberts at Urban Monkeys, held Tuesdays from 1-1:45
p.m., for non-walking children up to age 2. This is a parent-child
movement and music class designed to encourage function and
development. Call Urban Monkeys at 206-262-9282 for fees and to
register. More information at www.GoUrbanMonkeys.com.
Nurturing Pathways®,
a music and movement program for children with typical and special
needs founded by Christine Roberts, designed to enrich the first three
years of life. Roberts teaches Nurturing Pathways® at Dance Fremont and
Urban Monkeys, both in Seattle, and the North Kirkland Community Center
in Kirkland. Visit www.nurturingpathways.com or call 425-280-3805 for more information.
CLASS, Inc.
provides collaborative, integrated and functional remedial intervention
to young children with speech, language, learning, motor and social
communication delays or disorders. Call 253-874-9300 or visit www.classinc.net.
Kathleen
Q. Voss, MT-BC, Voss Music Therapy Services. Visit
www.vossmusictherapy.com, call 206-683-3523 or email
Aim High for Kids Respite Care for Autistic Children,www.aimhigh4kids.com
A home day-care facility in Shoreline dedicated to helping kids with
autism reach their fullest potential. Call 206-417-8357 or email
for more information.
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