I'm on a plane

I'm sitting in the plane flying a million feet in the air and I'm maybe an hour away from home....

I have never been so excited in my life to get back to such a FREEZING place. :)

I hope to see YOU ALL while I'm home over the next 2 weeks!!!!

There's no business like show business

(or maybe in light of the holidays we should say snow business :D)

So this was the crazy week of holiday performances! I wish I could show you pics of the kids...but b/c of confidentiality I can't... :(

Anyway, at one of my elementary schools we have for the last month and half been preparing our holiday show. It basically consists of singing, signing, props, instruments, a snow machine...you name it and we have it our show. We had 2 back-to-back performances at the school on Tuesday. On Monday we took our show on the road...we performed it at the local high school and Wal-Mart. I really wish I could show you pictures so that you could see that sheer CHAOS that ensues when you have 60 (that's right 6-0!!!) special needs kids performing - MADNESS! And I'm talking every level of special needs you can imagine from the most high functioning to the most low functioning - they were all there. AND somehow (and I have no idea how) they managed to pull it off every time without any major catastrophes - A-MA-ZING!

I never really considered performing as a part of music therapy prior to my internship. But the more I think about it, the more I think it is an awesome idea. There are so many beneficial skills that can be learned from performing and preparing to perform. But think about this too, when you go out in public you rarely see special needs kiddos... Well we had 60 of them out in public all at once AND they were doing something to not only give back to the community, but to promote public awareness of special needs. They presented themselves in a such a positive way that it makes me want to cry... And there was not a dry eye in Wal-Mart when those kids busted out Hap Palmer's Things I'm Thankful For.... If you don't know the song check it out: http://www.stumbleaudio.com/#happalmer5/8. Now imagine special needs kiddos signing, singing, etc. to this song. Absolutely beautiful.

During our performances at the elementary school Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus decided to make an appearance. The lady on Santa Claus's lap is Amber, my internship director. The other young lady is Caitlin, one of my fellow interns.

I'm so looking forward to being back in KS for a couple weeks (even if it is a little chilly :). For those who don't know, I'm flying in on Dec 19th and I'll leave Jan 3rd. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see anyone and everyone that I can!

The Bell Tree

So I don't know if this will help.... I hope it does...

In my internship, I have three "target" students. For those three students, I do a full assessment, treatment plan, data, weekly progress notes, the works basically. I have spent time digging into their files, talking to their teachers, observing in the classroom, getting to know them individually, etc. One of my target students unexpectedly passed away this weekend... He was seven years old and profoundly disabled. He was nonverbal, wheelchair bound, and had horrible muscle contractions. It was so difficult to know how much of his behavior was intentional....except when he smiled - that was his form of communication. And he had the most beautiful smile. I lived for those smiles. I would do virtually anything to get a smile from him.

We have this bell tree instrument. It looks like this:

We would use it in our sessions to make the "all finished sound". Basically after we completed an activity, we would use the bell tree to make the "all finished sound". I use it primarily as a form of reinforcing good behavior. I usually say something to the effect of "[student's name] was doing a super fabulous job so he gets to make the all finished sound". BUT for my target student, we used it solely to get that smile. We would bring the bell tree to him and play it a few times and he would break out into the world's biggest smile - it would melt your heart. Then we would put the mallet into his hand and help him play the bell tree. He would just grin from ear to ear.

It's so hard to believe I won't ever see that smile again. I've never lost a student or a client before....it's so hard....

Sometimes I think in my profession there is a tendency to get stuck on numbers and data. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be an emphasis there - we need those numbers to further our field. But right now, my little seven year old student is gone and I could care less about the numbers...at the end of the day I'm just glad I got him to smile. At the end of the day, I'm glad for a little while he wasn't crying in pain because he was smiling.

I know he is in a better place....but he is missed and loved down here.