Music, Naturally!
June 29, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The Naturals are Maurice Snell, Terry Bracey, Dan Massey and Craig Christiansen, a Chicago-area band. Snell and Bracey are autistic; Massey and Christiansen teach music. Christiansen co-founded the Creative Exchange Music Therapy program, which teaches music to children of different abilities. (I need to find a program like this around here—we recently found out that Charlie’s piano teacher has moved; Charlie plays as well as ever as we keep practicing, but a good teacher makes a big difference!)
You can see the Naturals performing on this video and, yes, it sounds good.
Hi, everyone! I saw your article about what music can do to children with disabilities. I had my practicum in sped last summer in a school in Cavite, Philippines. I saw how boring it was for the children during the motivation or circle time. One teacher told me that their songs were first introduced to them a year or more and they sang them everyday so I guess It became boring. I thought of introducing new songs and brought some musical instruments (maracas, tamborine, drums). They were all amused and became lively. some of the songs were played from my cassette tapes i brought from Seoul, Korea (I was an English teacher there for 8 years). The directress was impressed and even asked me for copies. I also introduced arts durings fridays. I integrated music in my arts and saw the tremendous impact it brought them. I think they became happier even just for summer. I wish I could do more but my practicum days are over. Now, I manage my own center and will integrate music and arts in my curriculum. My daughter is a pianist and maybe next time I can design or publish my own motivation songs to help children with disabilities. Thanks a lot and more power!
Nelda
Big Ideas Center for Exceptional Children
Dasmarinas, Cavite, Philippines
Thank you for telling us about your work—would like to know about your “motivation songs.” My son’s been singing a lot, as ever; his own words to a jazz beat.