Thinking More About Manipulating Music for Therapeutic Ends
Yesterday was another music therapy moment. The same group of kids as the last one with several significant differences...
One student was entirely out of control. He was showing signs and symptoms of tardive dyskinesia - strange facial expressions, uncontrollable behavior, physical twitches and tics, loud speech, and random comments. I asked if there had been any changes in his medication, and, yes indeed there had been. He was wild - not aggressive, but not able to focus on anything! This is the same kid who has been sitting with his head down when he feels that he is not getting what everyone else is getting. Everyone else was behaving in a typical way, but they couldn't really engage in a normal manner since this kid was so out of control.
So, what to do?
I went to my go-to elements of music, rhythm and tempo! The first song seemed to work in a mediocre manner, but the second was the one that changed the group dynamic.
On Fridays, I do theme-based sessions that aren't as specifically music therapy focused as the other sessions. That, of course, doesn't mean that all of my music therapy training goes out the window, but it means that I get to do things that are outside of my therapeutic mandate. So, yesterday, we were talking about professions and Labor Day.
The first song was about our own choices. The kid (I'll call him "L" for convenience sake) could not sit still. I sat him next to me for the express purpose of watching him and using my body to block him from accessing anyone else. He was talking constantly. L kept twitching and then yelling at me for yelling at him. (I wasn't.) He accused his peers of sticking out their tongues at him. (They may have been, but I didn't see it, unfortunately.) He could not settle into the music experience.
So, I switched the experience. I started a patsch, patsch, clap pattern. It took some time to get L to entrain, but with some manipulation of the tempo, he was able to coordinate himself to complete the pattern. His movements were jerky, but he was able to get it done. I paired that motor pattern with an unfamiliar song that we repeated over and over and over again. Twenty minutes of patsch, patsch, clap and singing one of my mother's favorite songs. By the end of the experience, L was sitting quietly with less twitching. Everyone else had contributed to the song through motor patterns and body percussion or singing.
By the end of the hour, the classroom was quieter than it had been when my intern and I entered. Everyone seemed to breathe easier. L certainly was sitting more quietly than he had started off...
Rhythm and tempo. My favorite therapeutic musical elements to manipulate during music therapy.
**On L - I reported the changes of behavior and my concerns about tardive dyskinesia to the liaison between me and the psychiatrist. Hopefully the kid will get some things changed with his medications so he can concentrate on things again.
One student was entirely out of control. He was showing signs and symptoms of tardive dyskinesia - strange facial expressions, uncontrollable behavior, physical twitches and tics, loud speech, and random comments. I asked if there had been any changes in his medication, and, yes indeed there had been. He was wild - not aggressive, but not able to focus on anything! This is the same kid who has been sitting with his head down when he feels that he is not getting what everyone else is getting. Everyone else was behaving in a typical way, but they couldn't really engage in a normal manner since this kid was so out of control.
So, what to do?
I went to my go-to elements of music, rhythm and tempo! The first song seemed to work in a mediocre manner, but the second was the one that changed the group dynamic.
On Fridays, I do theme-based sessions that aren't as specifically music therapy focused as the other sessions. That, of course, doesn't mean that all of my music therapy training goes out the window, but it means that I get to do things that are outside of my therapeutic mandate. So, yesterday, we were talking about professions and Labor Day.
The first song was about our own choices. The kid (I'll call him "L" for convenience sake) could not sit still. I sat him next to me for the express purpose of watching him and using my body to block him from accessing anyone else. He was talking constantly. L kept twitching and then yelling at me for yelling at him. (I wasn't.) He accused his peers of sticking out their tongues at him. (They may have been, but I didn't see it, unfortunately.) He could not settle into the music experience.
So, I switched the experience. I started a patsch, patsch, clap pattern. It took some time to get L to entrain, but with some manipulation of the tempo, he was able to coordinate himself to complete the pattern. His movements were jerky, but he was able to get it done. I paired that motor pattern with an unfamiliar song that we repeated over and over and over again. Twenty minutes of patsch, patsch, clap and singing one of my mother's favorite songs. By the end of the experience, L was sitting quietly with less twitching. Everyone else had contributed to the song through motor patterns and body percussion or singing.
By the end of the hour, the classroom was quieter than it had been when my intern and I entered. Everyone seemed to breathe easier. L certainly was sitting more quietly than he had started off...
Rhythm and tempo. My favorite therapeutic musical elements to manipulate during music therapy.
**On L - I reported the changes of behavior and my concerns about tardive dyskinesia to the liaison between me and the psychiatrist. Hopefully the kid will get some things changed with his medications so he can concentrate on things again.
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