Those Challenging Groups

There are times when every group of people becomes a challenge for the person tasked to be the leader. In my opinion, the mark of a great leader is the ability to find a way to bring the group of distinct personalities into cohesion - by any means possible. You cannot just shrug your shoulders and state, "That's the way this group is always going to be."

I currently have one EXTREMELY challenging group (fortunately, the other 10 groups that I work with are currently pretty cohesive for the moment). Here is the situation:

• Four students - three males, one femaie
• Diagnoses - Pervasive Developmental Disabilities; Classic Autism; severe emotional disorders; severe behavioral disorders
• Lots of staff support - this sounds good, but sometimes it's more of a hindrance than a help!
• Group session - the attitude is that kids MUST have group treatment in order to give teachers planning time.
• 50 minutes - always broken into short therapeutic music experiences (TMEs)
• Group members accustomed to short, repetitive work tasks. Attempts to provide structured learning experiences including picture schedules, but not much recognition or independence with the schedules
• Early afternoon session
• Students transition from a different building to the music therapy room

So, lots of things happening.

Right now, I am trying something radical. We are going to incorporate movement throughout the session, staying on our feet until we are tired. We are going to make music throughout the session, but the movement will be the requirement for most TMEs until kids start to show that they are tiring. Then, we will sit down for our familiar TMEs that require more stationary involvement. I am going to function with simple tasks led by one staff member for each child.

We will see if this works - if not, then back to the drawing board, as we say...