Music Therapy With Preschool Children on the Autism Spectrum

With close to 1 million children on the autism spectrum enrolled in U.S. schools, educators need effective interventions that promote young learners’ abilities and build cohesiveness in complex classroom groups. Drawing upon video recordings from 16 months in a public preschool classroom, this book depicts the emerging relationships and abilities that develop through musical play with children on the autism spectrum. Barnes explores connections among students, teachers, and a music therapist; broader questions about the needs of young children; and the benefits of incorporating music therapy in early childhood education and school-based autism services. In vivid narratives, readers follow individual preschoolers through their challenges and their steps toward shared attention, interpersonal interaction, and communication during music. This important book raises key issues about autism supports and therapies, and offers encouraging alternatives to prevailing educational and therapeutic methods.

Book Features:

• Chronicles the first two-year research study inside a music therapy group for preschoolers on the spectrum in a U.S. public school.
• Provides lucid personal portrayals of young children, teachers, and a music therapist.
• Explores the challenges and encouraging possibilities of helping young children through music.
• Describes the use of picture schedules, augmentative and alternative communication devices, musical instruments, percussion rhythms, and visual and tactile materials in music sessions.
• Presents children’s engagement in vocal interplay, turn-taking, theme-and-variation exchanges, and reciprocal expressions of emotion in early childhood education.

Geoff Barnes is an assistant professor of psychology and applied therapies at Lesley University, and the music therapist at the Campus School at Boston College.

“Geoff Barnes has provided us with a meticulously researched and reported account of the music therapy process across two years of development. The detailed description of actual music therapy sessions brings the reader into the room in a way that is enormously engaging as a narrative, while also allowing a type of naturalistic generalization that facilitates the application of what is learned to one’s own clinical practice.”
—Kenneth S. Aigen, associate professor, New York University; president, Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation; author, The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts

“Geoff Barnes demonstrates how music can be an incredibly valuable medium for supporting communication, emotional regulation, and connections with adults and peers. Educators, therapists, and parents will find this book to be an invaluable resource in supporting the development of preschool and young school-age children on the autism spectrum.”
—Barry M. Prizant, visiting scholar, Brown University; author, Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism

"This book is truly a work of art: two years of intensive clinical work with a consistent group of children on the autism spectrum; careful, meticulous observation and sensitive analysis; and insight that only comes with time, maturity, and perseverance. Dr. Barnes creates a bridge into the world of autism with support and insight for parents, teachers, and clinicians. This book is a skillful merging of deep thinking, careful analysis, and the literature, offered with a sense of humility.”
—Deforia Lane, retired director of art and music therapy, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center; author, Music as Medicine

Contents

Introduction: "My Name Is . . ." 1

Part I: The First School Year of Music Therapy with the Children

1. Gabriel and "Ten Fingers"—November 19 18
2. Emily’s Turn—December 3 29
3. The "Instrument Song": Shaking and Moments of Meeting—January 28 36
4. Playing the Chime: Dylan’s "Give It to Me" and Emily’s Energetic Participation—February 25 54
5. Rhythm, Entrainment, and Movement "Like This!"—March 24 77
6. The "Beanbag Song": Tactile and Visual Materials; Modeling and Mirroring Movements—April 13 85
7. "Three for Three"—May 26 95

Part II: The Second School Year of Music Therapy With the Children

8. Beginning the Second Year: Changes and Challenges—October 20 to December 8 108
9. Visual Supports, Movement, and Alternative Communication Aids—December 15 120
10. Observing the Children During Classroom Play and Morning Circle—December 22 131
11. Before the Sessions: Shared Guitar Playing and Vocalizing—February 9 and 16 141
12. The "Microphone Song" and Goodbye to Dylan—March 30 153
13. An Impasse and a Duet—May 18 164
14. Emily and the Drum; Gabriel and the "Toombah Song"—June 1 174

Conclusion 183

References 201
Index 211
About the Author 217