Thanksgiving ideas, gone virtual

Thanksgiving may look a little different this year, but that doesn’t mean Thanksgiving and fall themed music therapy interventions have to be less fun, engaging or beneficial for clients! In fact, we have a wide world of online resources at our fingertips that are great to use during this time of year and can be adapted or modified to fit various therapeutic goals.

The first resource I want to share is a website called “Boom Cards.” I had no idea what boom cards were prior to internship, but they are a game changer especially for virtual music therapy sessions! Boom cards are digital and interactive activities where students and/or clients answer questions or participate in activities and can receive immediate feedback for their answer. I like to think of boom cards as digital flashcards, but they are much more versatile! While you have the option to purchase certain boom cards, there are many decks on the website that are free and are great quality. One deck that I’ve used recently for fall is the “Scarecrow Emotions,” specifically for younger clients whose goals are to identify emotions or improve emotional regulation. While music is not inherently a part of these activities, I’ve been able to incorporate music by putting a melody to the questions and giving directions for the activity using a simple tune (ex: singing, “The scarecrow feels angry. Which face looks angry to you?”). I also modify the music based on the emotions the scarecrow feels. For example, if the directions say to give the scarecrow a sad face, sing the directions in a minor key to keep music incorporated in the intervention and to contextualize the sounds that may be associated with certain feelings.

There are so many more (and free woo!) boom cards that can be creatively adapted for music therapy interventions, I definitely recommend taking a look through the website and seeing how you may utilize these in sessions.

Another way I’ve used online resources for virtual sessions is by having clients build their “Thanksgiving plate” using visuals and a powerpoint slide. The food visuals and vocabulary words are courtesy of another website, “Teachers Pay Teachers.” I’ve used this activity primarily to work on clients’ sustained attention but it is also beneficial in helping clients identify foods associated with Thanksgiving and improving prosody of speech. Similar with the scarecrow intervention, I created a simple tune to sing while drumming: “What shall we eat, what shall we eat, what shall we eat for our Thanksgiving feast?” I encourage the client(s) to say their favorite holiday food that they see on the slide, and drag that food onto the plate. When they choose a food, I sing and drum the syllables of that food in a natural rhythm that the word is spoken (ex: green beans is two quarter notes). By the end, the client(s) has a full plate of Thanksgiving foods that they’ve made.

I hope these activity ideas and resources may help as we continue to explore the world of telehealth and how to best treat clients virtually. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Katherine

I’m a Believer (in the transformational design model)

As music therapists, advocating for the profession is an incredibly significant aspect of the job. While it’s nice to be considered a “happy music person,” there’s much more to the job description than just playing feel good music for others all the time! Now enter *drum roll please* the Transformational Design Model.

The Transformational Design Model (TDM), designed by Dr. Michael Thaut, provides a system for translating the scientific model to functional music therapy practice, specifically in regards to Neurologic Music Therapy. There are five steps to the model including:

1. Diagnostic and functional assessment of a patient or client (find client strengths and weaknesses)
2. Development of therapeutic goals/objectives
3. Design functional, nonmusical therapeutic exercises and stimuli
4. Translation of step 3 to functional therapeutic music experiences (incorporate music interventions to address the goals)
5. Transfer the therapeutic learning to functional, nonmusical real world applications (generalize)

Piggybacking off the song “Believer” by Imagine Dragons to list the 5 steps of TDM during symposium

The TDM is beneficial because of its functionality. It provides the ability for music therapists to address a client’s nonmusical goals (ex: social, emotional, cognitive, motor skills) with music interventions. In other words, TDM provides a model for music therapists to efficiently translate the scientific model by applying music to achieve the therapeutic goal. The TDM is significant in terms of advocacy because it puts the focus in the specific goals and objectives of a client, which can be assessed and measured, and less on the music activity presented. Music exercises that are isomorphic, or similar in structure, to non-music exercises are incorporated into a session so the goals (socialization, mood vectoring, gait training, etc) can be addressed and interventions chosen by the therapist are validated.

Here are examples of an activity-based approach in comparison to one based off of the TDM:

1. ACTIVITY BASED APPROACH: The music therapist chooses a popular song that the client knows. After choosing the activity, the therapist then decides that playing the piano can be helpful in improving finger dexterity and fine motor skills which can be beneficial for the client to improve upon.
2. TDM APPROACH:
   1. The music therapist assesses the client’s strengths and weaknesses, noting that the client appears to have minimal dexterity.
   2. The client shows need for improvement with muscle tone, fine motor skills and coordination with the fingers and hands.
   3. The MT may collaborate with other disciplines to determine if they have similar goals for the client and how they are addressing said goals in their therapeutic practice.
   4. At this point, the MT decides that incorporating a piano playing activity in the session plan may be a beneficial intervention for reaching the client’s goal/objective.
   5. The MT can then generalize ways for the client to apply the skills learned by playing piano in the session to the client’s daily life.

As music therapy is an evidence-based practice, the TDM is a model that helps make sure the goals and objectives of each client that need to be addressed are actually being addressed in the therapeutic setting.

Thaut, M. H. (2008). Rhythm, music, and the brain: Scientific foundations and clinical applications. Abingdon: Routledge.

Until next time,

Katherine