For the last two years, I have worked extensively with children with disabilities at summer camps and therapy sessions. Many of these children have disabilities like autism, down syndrome, extreme ADHD, and Asperger’s syndrome. The goal is to improve the lives of these children by providing constant attention and enthusiasm, as well as a structured daily routine that enables them to strive for better cognitive control of their specific disability. Activities are usually catered to help each individual child with their problems.
One of the most powerful tools that seems to have a positive effect on the lives of all of the children is music therapy. Most times we will give the children a percussive intrument and instruct them to play along with us as we play a simple beat. Dancing to lively music is also utilized many times at the start of everyday to motivate the children to wake up and begin their day with a positive attitude. The heightened interest whenever a musical activity begins is always extremely apparent, as the kids tend to focus better, and often exceed our expectations of what they are capable of doing. My experience in this only furthers Weinbergers argument from the previous post that music is an intrinsic part of everyone. Even children who have difficulty performing the simplest tasks in life can relate to and learn how to perform simple musical tasks. Without much previous instruction, children are still able to understand the concepts of rhythm and harmony. They like certain music more than others, and react to music in much the same way that we do. Music truly is universal and a part of biological make-up.
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