Creating a Hierarchy for Learning
Making sure that clients learn the skills you are working on and are able to generalize them to other settings and in their day to day life is essential for their growth! One effective tool for structuring this learning is using a Hierarchy. Below is the layout of a Learning Hierarchy from The Music Therapy Center of California that leads these clients through these steps. This hierarchy helps clients to start by learning a skill through music and then eventually be able to translate it into their daily life. This uses a scaffolding approach, which starts with support and direction, and eventually fades out so that clients are able to use these skills on their own.
A Music Therapy Learning Hierarchy: for Children with ASD: by the Music Therapy Center of California
Interact and learn: First, listen to the song. Give clients the opportunity to play or dance along, and eventually sing-a-long as they get to know the lyrics.
- Example: if working on a social skills song about what to do when you first meet a stranger, you would first introduce the song to the client. You could play along on instruments and dance along with the client.
- Example Lyrics: When you meet someone for the first time, Smile at them and say “Hi!”
Pause for Understanding: Use song review, by pausing the recording or your playing at the end of a phrase and see if the client is able to fill in the words. This gives clients an opportunity to practice the lyrics without any help, and is a cognitive exercise, requiring them to stay engaged and focused! When they are ready, you can also encourage clients to sing the entirety of the song karaoke style!
- Example: Sing the song again with the client, but leave out the final phrase. With the example song given above, you could sing the full phrase but leave out “Hi!” and the end, and have the client fill it in to check for understanding.
Fade the Music: Next, you take out the melody entirely, and you chant the lyrics. You can do this while drumming a steady beat, or while tapping along. If the client is having difficulty remaining on beat, you can tap on their arm/shoulder to help them entrain to the rhythm of the chant. This helps clients on their way to generalizing this skill, by removing the musical melody component. Lastly, you remove the chant entirely. Instead, clients simply say the lyrics, and they do not have to be in the rhythm of the song. You can use visuals to have clients practice putting the steps of the skills they are learning in order, or you can practice by acting the skill out together.
- Example: First, remove the melody and simply chant “when you meet someone for the first time, smile at them and say hi”. Once this has been mastered, remove the chant and rhythm and simply say the lyrics: “When you see someone for the first time, you can smile and say hi!”. You could add in scenarios and act out this scenario by pretending you are a stranger that they have just met, so they can practice how to behave.
Generalize: In this final step, the goal is to generalize the skill to other areas of the client’s life, outside of your music therapy session. To add another level of practice, you can have the client practice this skill with someone other than you (another therapist, family member, or friend).
- Example: Ask another therapist or nearby individual to come into the therapy session, so that the client can practice how to say hello to someone new! Or bring the client around to surrounding businesses if possible, so they have more opportunity for practice.
Some tips to help increase success for the client:
- Create visuals for your song (steps to take, scenarios, lyrics)
- Create a video acting out the skill you are working on
- Practice with costumes on
- Use a microphone to encourage client to sing along and practice lyrics
- Create actions/motions to go along with your song
- Create a dance for your song that corresponds with lyrics
- Practice the skill in new places/new scenarios
You will know that you have been successful when your client goes from simply singing along to the song, to being able to use this skill in their everyday life! Being able to generalize these skills outside of their music therapy session is an important goal to work towards.
If you’d like to see these techniques in action, watch the following video, created by The Music Therapy Center of California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqb_Pxd8hyY&feature=youtu.be
Imagine Child Magazine has an article about this topic, it is linked here: http://issuu.com/ecmt_imagine/docs/imagine_7_1__2016/97?e=1466273/39224725
See you in the next post!
Audrey
Teaching Social Skills Through Song: A Music Therapy Learning Hierarchy for Children with ASD. (2016). Retrieved November 1, 2019, from https://issuu.com/ecmt_imagine/docs/imagine_7_1__2016/97?e=1466273/39224725
