Music Therapy Lapbooks

Okay, my new passion is music therapy lapbooks. I enjoy making things to use with my students, and these are just plain old fun!

Basically, a lapbook is a visual aid designed for use by an individual. I first got wind of the idea when I was trolling around the education board at Pinterest. It seems that many teachers and homeschoolers use lapbooks for learning and reviewing specific materials and topics. They are often very complex - lots of flaps, pockets, pictures, and information. The music examples are all based on music theory - something good to know, but not something that is really relevant to my clients. So, I have started to adapt the idea of lapbooks into books that are relevant to my kids.

So, I bought a package of file folders and got started.

As a music therapist, I am always looking for ways to use music to assist my clients in achieving non-musical goals. Composition and music theory are fine topics for some of my clients, but many of them are unable to understand the abstract concepts needed to use composition visual aids independently. So, I started looking through my Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) file for TMEs that could be easily replicated by my students or by the paraprofessionals that attend music therapy sessions on a regular basis. (Remember, my goal is for my clients to use this visual aid independently - WITHOUT ME!)

The first and most obvious theme for me was Manners. Several years ago, I had my students write piggyback songs to remind us about specific manner expectations. We wrote about washing our hands, using our inside voice, and raising our hands. We also wrote songs about personal space and covering our mouths when we coughed, sneezed, or burped. Each song is based on a traditional US children's melody, and we sing them occasionally. I had made some Powerpoint presentations along with recordings of students singing the songs, but it seems that teachers have not used those files in their classrooms. Sigh. Anyway, I decided to trot out these songs for use in my first lapbook.

The next step was to conceptualize my lapbook. I had a couple of stipulations: 

1. Every surface has to be laminated.
2. All materials have to be original due to copyright issues.
3. Clients (or fellow music therapists) need to be able to access all of the information needed to finish the tasks on the lapbook. So, everything has to be present - TME plans, sheet music (if needed), and elements of the task (pictures, moving pieces, and other things that may have a place in this task).

Off we go!

I started with a regular file folder (I always start my projects with the cheapest materials so I can experiment without wasting too much money if everything goes horribly wrong!), and started to play around. I cut flaps, rounded corners, cut out small pieces of paper, and started gluing. I decided to print song words and fill-in-the-blank questions on address labels. I put together a lapbook and laminated it. I thought it looked pretty good, but I found some difficulties with my design once I took it in to my sessions (more on that in a little bit).

I was excited to take it into music therapy sessions with my students. I used the lapbook with an entire group (difficulty #1), reading the fill-in-the-blank questions to all of them, and they shouted out the answers. They did really well. The lapbook was pretty difficult for folks to see, so I will make more. Then, small groups of clients can share a lapbook and follow along with me. I quickly found that I couldn't really control the flaps of the lapbook when I was using it with kids (difficulty #2). I needed to use Velcro to close the flaps, but I had placed my song lyrics in the place where Velcro would be best. So, back to the drawing board with lapbook design.

The next variation on the theme turned out better than variation #1. I cut out each individual set of song lyrics, leaving a significant space for Velcro. I used a colored file folder (more expensive). Variation #2 should be better for some of my clients and worse for others - too much visual stimulation is distracting for some of my clients.

I am now making some new lapbooks for my students. I have an idea for a series of lapbooks centered around the five senses - I'm not sure how I can use them in therapy yet, but I can see some good ways to use them outside of music therapy. I also like the idea of linking the lapbooks with Smart Notebook files during calendar time in the classroom. Kids could follow along on the lapbook while either one peer or the teacher uses the SmartBoard to demonstrate the task. That increases the amount of interaction that each individual would have during calendar time, something that is truly lacking in our use of SmartBoard technology at this time.

Oh my. The ideas keep flowing. If you are interested in learning more about how to make lapbooks, please check out my website, www.musictherapyworks.com /products.html. I would also like to hear what others are doing out there with visual aids, lapbooks, file folder activities, and other TME ideas. Let's share, folks!