How to Connect and Bond with Children with Autism through Music
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Rhythm Tree, my name is Ryan Judd, I'm a board certified
music therapist, here to give you some more great tips and tricks on how to use music
to help children with special needs.
As many of you may know in my DVD package, I go really deep into using music to bond
with children and to bring families together.
There's lots of songs and activities and techniques and strategies that I really dive deep into.
But I just want to scratch the surface here and give you one little technique that you
can use at home or if you're a therapist or educator, might use with some of your students
or clients with special needs.
It's simple, it's basically, the old patty-cake clap.
And there's so much to this, it sounds so simple, but you'll see it in action, I have
a couple of clips of me working with my clients and what's going on?
First of all you're facing the child, so it's perfect for facial referencing, eye contact,
that kind of bonding, and next you're making contact, so they're getting that physical
feedback, they're getting that touch, that proprioceptive feedback that so many of these
kids really feed on, and it can really be great for redirecting a child or engaging
them so then you can work on developmental skills.
You see I work on greetings with one of my clients here, it's great for doing a really
quick stop and having them say go or more, or use sign language or an AAC device, you
can stop before a particular word in the song, and have them fill in the word.
There's so much you can do, it's great for motor planning, if a child is having difficulty
reaching out like that, or perhaps you could clap above your head so they're having to
use that shoulder extension and use that mobility.
You can cross midline and go side to side, there's so much great stuff you can do with
this.
So please share this if you think others would benefit from it, definitely sign up for my
newsletter, I'm going to give a link right below, and I go even further into these great
strategies and resources and tips and tricks in my newsletter.
It's really fun.
So please sign up for my newsletter and I will see you next week at The Rhythm Tree.
Thank you