New students - new challenges

I have been traveling for the past month (visiting my glorious Ukraine), and have not had time to add any updates about my music therapy progress.

Today however I had a trial class in a new school, with two new children. Actually they are not really kids, but rather young adults - both being in their twenties. It was the first time, that I interacted with patients who are not 3 years old and who can actually speak. I enjoyed our class tremendously, and feel that I can truly use the music to help them explore their inner feelings and emotions, and find soothing pleasure in music.

In our class today we did few songs that I use with my other students - these are mainly children songs in Arabic, few in English, and a beautiful lullaby in Arabic. They were received very positively, I guess, due to the fact that they are very well known and my students could follow them and sing along since the beginning.
I also used some props (pictures of vegetables and fruits), while singing to a 'Shopping song' (to be posted soon), and it worked wonders, as it gave them safe background to show their knowledge, laugh at fun pictures, and help be at ease while communicating with me.

Also, turned out Fairuz is the ever favorite! I am truly excited about  using some of her songs for our therapy classes. I hope we can have good discussions around the lyrics, and use those songs as means of expressing inner world of my students.
Overall, exciting! New direction, new approach and new challenge!

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.