Systems in Music Therapy: Color-Coding

Fridays are for focusing on things that work for me in my music therapy life which I then share with others in the hope that someone else might benefit from my lived experiences. Today, as I am surrounded by the leftover piles on the floor from my intense need to rearrange my office space, avoiding the thought of what I still need to put away and find places for in this area before the HVAC guy arrives at some point, I am thinking about my most successful organization tool - color-coding.

It seems really simplistic, doesn't it? That's because it really is! I use color-coding for many things, but it really is most important in my storage and use of visual aids in my music therapy space.

I have lots of music therapy visuals. Many of them I have purchased over the years, but many more are ones that I have made for my clients. All of my visuals are stored in boxes, but it is sometimes difficult to find what I want. As a result, I color-code things to help me find things based on primary function first and by title second. So, I use a color-coding system to help me find what I am looking for as quickly as possible.

Each treatment domain has a color. I use the rainbow colors because I like the esthetic that comes from using ROYGBIV in my spaces. At this time, I have not arranged my visuals in rainbow color order, I just use the colors to indicate what treatment domain is addressed with which visual aid.

Here is how I arrange things - now, this is just the way I do things - it is your job to figure out what works for you in your space, but having some sort of organizational system will help you find materials quickly and save you time when you really need it.

Red - this is for all things that address the motor domain. Anything that has to do with movement goes into a red container of some sort. I have red file folders, boxes, plastic envelopes, binders - you get the idea. If I want something that will encourage movement with my clients, I know that it is in something red. If the primary use for the material or object is motor, but there are other things as well, then I use dot stickers to indicate the secondary and tertiary goal areas.

Orange - holiday stuff is in orange. While it may be a bit unexpected to see a Christmas carol songbook covered in orange, it helps me find the book easily in my December box. So, something that is a Hanukah song that encourages gross motor movement will be in an orange file folder with a red dot on the top of the tab so I know that we will be addressing motor movements while singing this song.

Yellow = this is reserved for academic/cognitive materials. I use this all the time for piggyback or Mad-Lib lyrics, lyric-based composition, sequencing TMEs, and all sorts of other things. I have lots of yellow folders.

Green - social/communication TMEs. I put as many of my PECS, icons, and pictures on green folders or binder pages as possible.

Blue - emotional/behavioral materials.

Purple - musical visuals.

When I am designing files for my TPT store, I use this same color-coding system to indicate the primary treatment focus for the TMEs I include. I know that the people who buy my files have no idea why this one is purple and this one is orange, but I do.

You might be thinking, "what about people who can't distinguish between colors?" I have thought about this because many of my clients do not see color differences. In those cases, I encourage people to use dedicated patterns to indicate the different categories. Horizontal lines, vertical lines, line weight changes, plaids, small symbols - all of these work as indications of different categories. What about people who do not see? You can use textures, shapes, or foam letters - something that has a raised surface that you can feel. I do not use these because this organizational system is for my use in my practice. If an intern arrives who has this way of viewing the world, I can update my categories to include patterns, but that hasn't happened yet.

The point of a system is to make things easier for you, as the person who lives within the environment. The best thing about having a system is that it will become habitual the more you use it. I automatically reach for a yellow file folder or binder page when I am developing an academic file folder. That is the point of having some sort of system - having it become automatic.

I have a little card on my rolodex that reminds me of my system. (There are times where I get green and blue mixed up, so it is good to have it written down somewhere I can access it easily.) This little card helps me explain my system to interns when they are trying to find visuals in my extensive library. I let them know that anything that is red is going to be movement related. If they are looking for cards or icons that depict movement, those visuals will be in something red. This cuts down on the searching by 80% since they can ignore anything that does not have a red container or a red dot on it. Once they understand the way things are organized, they seem to be able to find what they need. I do not require that they adopt my system for their own materials or visual aids, but they are required to adopt mine. So, if they are going to make a visual aid for me, I will provide them with the red file folder that I want to contain that visual aid in after they leave. They can make their own copy any way that they want (also with the materials provided by me), but my copy needs to be easily organized into my existing system. I think that's fair - if it is not, please let me know your opinions.

Happy last day of my Spring Break!