children

Will These Songs Help You?

October 5, 2009

I have two items to address in today’s post. They are completely and totally unrelated.
Music Therapy Conference Tweetup
Wait…a tweetup? What’s that?
I will post a video this week that defines a tweetup and how it relates to our upcoming national music therapy conference.

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How To Recognize the 4 Types of Attention

September 29, 2009

One of the most common goals music therapists address are attention goals. For example:

Goal: To increase attention span.
Goal: To promote on-task behavior.
Goal: To improve attention to task.
…and so on.

Attention. It’s a basic yet foundational skill. The ability to focus and pay attention is a precursor to a host of other cognitive skills  (another foundational skills [...]

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Book Review: Ghosts From the Nursery

August 13, 2009

I have a confession – I actually wrote this book review about a year ago for the biannual newsletter of the Colorado Association for Music Therapy (or CAMT). But, the book had such an effect on me and my practice that I wanted to share it with you. So…here you go:
Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing [...]

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The Daily Blog 08/07/2009

August 7, 2009

Many fascinating and interesting articles have emerged over the past month. A sample for you:

The Music of Healing for Disabled Vets. Describes how a non-music therapist created a music training program at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. A feel-good story.
Scary Music? Better Keep your Eyes Open. Closing your eyes enhances your emotional response to music [...]

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Response to “Momma v. Therapist”

August 4, 2009

Last week, I posted an article asking for your input about some experiences I’ve had recently where my “Momma” voice emerges when working with a client. You can read the post here.
I received several responses, both as comments on this blog and on Facebook.
And your comments have helped clarify things for me:

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“Momma” v. Therapist

July 30, 2009

This is an unofficial statistic, but I would say 85% of music therapists are women.
And of those, many are moms.
I am one of those moms. I have two beautiful children, a 2.5 year old and a 9 month old. And for me, being a mom makes me a better music therapist and being a music [...]

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7 Simple Ways to Calm an Angry Child

July 23, 2009

We’ve all made this mistake. It’s human nature. Evolution, really. We can’t help it. We’re wired to respond this way.
A child gets angry. The child cries, yells, hits, pinches. Our blood pressure rises. Our voice gets louder. We get in their face so they pay attention to us. We bark at them.
Does this work? Maybe. [...]

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Attention All Therapists: An Ethical Question. Please vote.

June 11, 2009

Imagine the following scenario:
You are working with a 10-year-old boy with special needs. This boy is verbal, is labeled as “high functioning” and has a particular interest in typical “girl” activities: Barbies, Disney princesses, and dressing up. He likes to talk about these things…a lot.
Part of the initial therapy goals are to come up with [...]

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The 3 Facets of a Music Therapist

June 9, 2009

If you visit my company website, you will notice the pictures up top labeled “science,” “music,” “therapy.” I was introduced to this concept in graduate school, the idea that a music therapist encompasses being trained as a musician, a scientist, and a therapist.
A true story for you:
Yesterday, I was scheduled to facilitate some music therapy [...]

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