Incorporating Yoga-Based Breathing Techniques for Relaxation

            I have been practicing yoga for the past five years and have found so many benefits in my personal life. Recently, I have been reading “Asanas for Autism and Special Needs: Yoga to Help Children with their Emotions, Self-Regulation and Body Awareness,” by Shawnee Thornton Hardy to learn how I can incorporate yoga into my music therapy sessions.

            The foundation of yoga is your breath. While there are many forms of breathing used in yoga, they each have specific benefits for your body and should be utilized to achieve specific goals. For example, there is a way to use your breath to build heat as well as a way to use your breath to cool you down. Below, I have outlined a couple of different methods of breathing that can benefit children with special needs and the goals they focus on. Both of these breaths should be repeated 4-5 times in a row to see the benefits.

Balloon Belly Breath:

-First sit in a cross-legged position or lie on your back.

-Place your hand on your stomach.

-As you inhale through your nose, fill up your belly like a balloon causing your hands to move away from your body.

-As you exhale, open your mouth and let out all of the air.

Benefits: This breath targets first and foremost awareness of breath and can help the child realize how to take a low belly breath to promote relaxation and digestion.

Dragon’s Breath:

-First kneel or sit in a cross-legged position (can also sit up tall in a chair).

-As you inhale through your nose, raise your hands up toward the ceiling like a dragon’s wings.

-As you exhale out of your mouth making a “haaa” sound, fly your arms down and back away from your body.

Benefits: This breath helps the child let out anger and release any tension or frustration they are feeling in the moment. This can help the child calm down and be ready to complete some low belly breaths to further relaxation.

I hope that this gives you some things to try with your child and I look forward to learning more about pairing yoga with music therapy to give my patients the best possible experiences.

-Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern

Music Therapy & Angelman Syndrome

       Two years ago when I started doing a literature review, on the effect music therapy had on Angelman Syndrome, there was no research that combined music therapy and Angelman Syndrome. At my clinical site I saw music therapy’s effect first hand with a child who has Angelman Syndrome. I began a research plan and started collecting data. First I needed to know what Angelman Syndrome was and the different characteristics that accompany this diagnosis. It is a neurogenetic disorder that is caused by a defect in chromosome 15; this affects 1 in 15,000 live births. Some common characteristics are: developmental delay, speech impairment, movement or balance disorder, appears typically happy, seizures, and aggressive behaviors. My client was a ten year old caucasian female who was nonverbal and had a tip toe gait. She had a developmental delay, appeared typically happy, and showed aggressive behavior.

When I started music therapy sessions in this classroom my client would not sit still unless she was asleep. She would typically express erratic and aggressive behavior. I started doing individual sessions with her that lasted about ten minutes because that was all the attention she was able to give. She became attached to the ocean drum; she would hit the drum and hold it against her face. Her goal for the Fall Semester was to increase participation as operationally defined as playing an instrument and staying in seat.  She Improved in her seat timeand instrument play from 5 minutes and 10 times to 8 minutes and 20 times. Music was a calming and interactive reinforcement that worked to improve seat time. Her goal for the Spring Semester was to increase independence as operationally defined by sitting on the toilet without interventions from the therapist or teacher.  She increased her independence from 62 seconds with 4 interventions to 30 seconds and only 2 interventions. Music was used as a positive reinforcement; I sang hello then brought her to the bathroom using a bathroom song. Once she was finished I took her to play some of her favorite instruments.

Overall I saw great progress toward these goals. She became less aggressive toward other students in the class. I would recommend music therapy as an important therapy for children with Angelman Syndrome. Many of the techniques I used I feel I can incorporate into my sessions with clients at Therabeat even if they do not have Angelman Syndrome. Techniques such as: listening to the clients improvisation and understanding how they are feeling if they cannot speak for themselves, how to ease into having a client hold and play an instrument if they like to throw things, and how to redirect aggressive behaviors through the use of music. I would like to continue to research music therapy’s effects on children with Angelman Syndrome through the pursuit of my masters and doctorate. 

-Dana LaValley, Music Therapy Intern

Resources: The Facts about Angelman Syndrome [Brochure]. (n.d.) Aurora, IL: Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

A Band of our Own

We are so excited to begin offering adaptive lessons in a band setting! As a team, we have realized the need for our kiddos to build meaningful relationships with their peers. Music gives people a unique opportunity to build community together--by building creative and beautiful products together! For all of human history, people have built society around song--it is our means of expressing the experience of life together. This is why we have chosen to offer adaptive lessons in a small group setting of 2-3 kiddos. In this setting, kids will learn how to play an instrument of their choice (piano, percussion, ukulele, guitar, or voice) while also learning how to play with other people. The goals of these groups are two-fold. On one hand, learning an instrument builds individual cognitive and fine motor skills, and on the other, learning to play music with other people builds listening, group cooperation, and social skills. Our hope is that through adaptive lesson small groups, our kiddos will learn autonomy and self-confidence of being individually responsible for their own part, while also learning to work with and build meaningful relationships with their fellow group members. This group setting is for kiddos that want to build social skills, and want to build musical skills, but need a therapeutic setting to do so. The great thing about this group, is that it is for kiddos that may have some experience on an instrument or no experience at all! To find out if adaptive lesson groups would be best for your child, call Perry Wright LPMT, MT-BC (229-347-2767). MT will have a consultation with the family to form bands.

Woodstock Family Life

Click here to check out Therabeat Inc.'s article in the current issue of the Woodstock Family Life magazine (page. 40).

Improvisation with Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

One of the musical interventions I have seen in my first couple of weeks at Therabeat is improvisation. Improvisation is defined as, “the art of creating music spontaneously on the basis of nondirective activity.” This can be done in many different ways including drumming, singing, playing piano, or any other instrument we use in music therapy. This can be especially helpful in achieving goals with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Sara Knapik-Szweda conducted a study to determine the effectiveness and influence of vocal and instrumental improvisation on children diagnosed with autism. She discussed the reciprocal interaction between the therapist and patient and how meaningful that is to the musical improvisation. Improvisation provides a safe environment within the musical structure for the patient to be creative. The main goal of her study was to determine the influence of improvisation on communication, social development, and reduction of repetitive behaviors. She found that nonverbal communication, social skills and cognitive goals including joint attention, concentration, memorizing and imitating were all improved in the patients who participated in improvisational music therapy sessions.

Many of our patients here at Therabeat have Autism, so this is a great way we can help them achieve their goals. Incorporating improvisation into their sessions will allow them to foster creativity as well as get closer to their communication, social, and cognitive goals.

Source: Knapik-Szweda, Sara. (2015). The Effectiveness and Influence of Vocal and Instrumental Improvisation in Music Therapy on Children Diagnosed with Autism. Journal of Education Culture and Society (1), 153-166. 

-Lauren Booke, Music Therapy Intern