My students

Let me tell you a bit more about my students, as it will be their stories that I will share throughout my journey in this blog.

K. is a 3 year old boy, full of joy and happiness. His initial diagnose is autism, though he does not really fit into the typical description of autistic child, thus still undergoing doctors' assessments. He is probably my toughest case, as observed by an outsider. Nevertheless, he is one of the biggest reasons why I decided to stay in the field. I have been working with K. since spring 2010. We meet twice a week, for half an hour sessions.

N. is a 5 year old girl, diagnosed with mental development delay. She has problems with eye sight, alongside difficulties in speech, eye contact and cognitive functions. Nour is still a 'dark horse' for me. I have been working with her for past 3 months, delivering two 30 min sessions per week. N. shows a particular interest in movement, and rhythm, though I am still finding my way for the best program for N., that fits both her interest and her needs.

Z. is a 5 year old girl, smart and bright, with speech development delay. Her mental development is on the level of other children in her class, however, she has troubles communicating, articulating sounds, managing social conversation, and has challenges with eye contact. She is the only child in the family, and her mother took her to kindergarden only a month ago. Thus, absence of siblings or kids to play with in the area contributed to her speech delay. She absolutely loves music, singing and playing rhythm.

These are my only students at the moment, and while I am quite confident about my progress with K., my program for N. is still lacking its momentum, as well as more ideas for my activities with Z. would be needed.

Introduction

About a year ago a friend of mine asked me to teach music for an autistic teenage girl. I readily agreed, not knowing where it will take me at the end. A year since then, and I am working with three children, all with diverse special needs, trying to help them develop using music.

I am not a certified music therapy. Unfortunately, Middle East has only one program - in Jordan, and it is insanely expensive. Nevertheless, I am rather a person, passionate about music, who suddenly discovered that working with special needs kids is extremely rewarding and fun.

Music therapy is a very new subject in the Middle East, with only one program currently running in Jordan, one music therapist in Syria, and a few foreign practitioners in Gulf countries. While one can find a multiple selection of resources on songs, activities and music for English-speaking kids, nothing (and I mean that) exists for music therapy in Arabic.

I am not a native Arabic speaker, and I used English-language songs and resources in my classes previously. However, over the time, I realized that nothing can get through to a child better than study in his own language. I started collecting nursery rhymes, and songs that would be useful for music therapy settings, and that would be in Arabic language. It proved a challenge, as not all children songs from the region are applicable for use in music therapy.

Thus, my idea of the blog came up. Here I will note down my progress, thoughts, emotions, and wonderings on my classes with students. I'd love to hear your feedback and comments. I will also post whatever Arabic-language resources that I could find to be used in music therapy.

Hopefully this blog will serve as a motivation for me to grow and develop, and as a tool for growing and developing music therapy in Middle East.