Fun Things Friday: Visual Aids - Why Do I Make Them?

Do you ever have moments in your music therapy session when you realize that you really need a visual to communicate something with someone or so they can communicate with you, and you just don't have it at your fingertips? So, you try to remember what that something is for later so you can make it?

I do. ALL THE TIME!

The Speech Pathologist at my facility is always reminding us that all of the devices, books, PECS, and other AAC things that we have around are the voices of our clients, and we have to ensure that they can use their voices. I've run into several problems with this quest, and it is my quest to have visuals (at least) that my clients can use to express their ideas, opinions, likes, dislikes, motivations, and anything else that they want to express, so that is one of the reasons that I enjoy making visual aids for my clinic. I view them as part of the voices of my clients who either cannot, due to physical situations, or do not, due to other situations, use sound to communicate.

Here's one of my problems...

The sheer number of topics that I present to my students makes a "complete" communication system unrealistic. In this past week, we sang about emotions, food choices, whether folks wanted a turn, we moved to the music, we made silly sounds, we moved body parts, we did all sorts of incidental communication things. I looked at my visual aids and realized that, if I had full sets of all the vocabulary that I was seeking from my clients, the visuals would cover the entirety of my music therapy room...and I still wouldn't be finished with adding more necessary words/visual choices.

There are times when I have a convenient piece of paper and pen nearby, so I can generate visual aids that I need in the actual therapy moment, but I am not usually that organized, so I try to remember what I need and then I make it. I have a food choice file (available to you on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, just in case you would like your own copy - send me a comment, and I'll send you the link) that has 96 choices available. That communication set alone takes up an entire three-ring binder. I also use the great emotion indicators from Educate Autism - these are a free resource that I use every single day with my students. Those don't take the entire binder, but they do use up at least two pages of my group binders.

I have come to the realization that I cannot anticipate every single word that I will ever want available to my clients, but I am trying my best. 

I love making visual aids that can be used in many different ways, so I often make my own to use. I have a huge three-ring binder that one of my former interns pulled together that has lots of communication options. I would like to have multiple copies of that binder at one point, but the thing is so bulky that I usually only use it when I can identify one piece that I need. For example, yesterday a client requested I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas and then indicated that we needed to change the vowel sounds. My brain started racing - "If only I had some letter cards, then everyone could choose...Wait a minute...I have those cards...Let me get out 25's special project...There they are...now everyone can select a vowel sound...communication success!"


For me, this is the core reason behind making visuals - communication. I look for functional uses for all of the visuals that I make, and as you know, my six-things rule comes into play here. I want to have many types of uses for the things that I make, because I want to generalize communication from just in social/communication therapeutic music experiences to all aspects of the music therapy session and beyond the time they spend with me every week. 

By the way, I'm working on making communication books that are dedicated to music performers. This is truly a never-ending task, but I am trying to get started. My first one, my Disney Classics book, took me some time to coordinate, but I think I know what I need these days to get some more popular options started. I just have to find the time.

I think I'm going to work on a music goal game this morning. I'll make the game board and then use my clip art files to make it look all spiffy. It also needs a song...hmmm. This is probably the real reason that I like making visual aids - I find it creative and fun to take a blank piece of paper and turn it into something brand new.

Happy Friday!! What types of visuals do you use most often in your music therapy practice? Do you use them at all? Let me know in the comments!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more