For this study, I saw children in three schools. The different school environments, their routines, pedagogical approaches, and their respective relationships with music impacted the way I was working in each school. School A was a special school for children with moderate to severe learning difficulties that also offered autism-specific education. The school had already employed a music therapist for many years when I started the project, which had several advantages. For example, I could use a purpose-built music therapy room that was spacious, light and equipped with plenty of instruments (see Figure 2). Furthermore, the teachers were already accustomed to music therapy, had established a working referral system, and valued the treatment provision. I benefited from the structure and trust that the regular music therapist had built up in the team. All these elements made it easy for me to work in this environment.
Figure 2: Music therapy room, school A
School B was a mainstream primary school which had not offered music therapy before the research project. The school was relatively small with no music room and almost no musical instruments. However, the head teacher was enthusiastic about music therapy and offered a meeting room as the therapy room (see Figure 3). This meant that I needed to spend approximately 20 minutes each day transforming the room in the morning into a suitable music therapy room, i.e. removing chairs and tables and setting up instruments, and another 20 minutes after the sessions re-arranging everything to its original position. The school provided a keyboard and few percussion instruments to which I added a variety of instruments that I brought with me. In this school, teaching assistants (TAs) were present in all music therapy sessions. This allowed us to build close partnerships, discuss ideas, and reflect on the children’s progress in and outside sessions. As the TAs shared their experiences with the classroom teachers, the latter also developed an interest in music therapy, attended several sessions and supported my work.
School C, a special school for pupils with a diagnosis of ASD, had also no prior experience with music therapy. However, they offered regular music lessons, and were thus well equipped with instruments. These were stored in a very small room in which it was difficult to move around or dance during the sessions (see Figure 4). Even though I always tried to spend breaks together with other teachers in the staff room and to engage in conversations about the children, it was more difficult in this school to become a member of the team. Work satisfaction among staff seemed low, maybe because budget cuts resulted in a shortage of qualified teachers, and TAs were often expected to run whole classes on their own. The school also struggled with rooms and space, which sometimes seemed to cause feelings of rivalry and disturbances of the sessions by staff or pupils. As more and more children benefited from music therapy and started to show improvements outside sessions, staff and parents became more interested. At the end of the research project, many of them advocated a continuation of the treatment provision so that funding could be secured to employ a music therapist.
Figure 4: Music therapy room, school C
Even though the external preconditions differed between schools, I always made sure that a variety of appealing instruments was available in the sessions. As the piano is my principal instrument, I feel comfortable using it and it usually plays a prominent role in my sessions. The piano is very versatile, and it is relatively easy to produce ‘proper’ music, which is maybe why so many children seem to be drawn to it as well. I also use guitars and ukuleles very often as they allow me to be mobile while playing chords and they often motivate children to develop or improve fine motor skills. Different-sized drums and djembes, as well as hand-held percussion instruments including shakers, tambourines or jingle bells are almost always used in my sessions. Tuned percussion instruments, including xylophones, wind-chimes or resonator bells allow children to create melodies easily, and wind instruments, such as reed horns, kazoos or swannee whistles support the development of
mouth muscles and breath control. My second instrument is the saxophone, and I brought my tenor saxophone to several sessions. Most children showed an interest in the big, shiny instrument that had a very different sound quality, reminding some of jazz or pop music. The sensory nature of the instrument, also described by Annesley, Crociani, Davidson, and Vaz (2015), seemed to be especially appealing to many of the autistic children. I used my voice almost constantly and thereby encouraged children to sing and vocalise as well. Most of the music played in sessions was live and improvised. Apart from free musical exchanges, recurring elements such as a hello and a goodbye song, familiar songs, musical games as well as movement and dance activities were also incorporated in the sessions. In addition to the musical instruments, I also offered objects and toys to some children. These included, for instance, a blanket under which instruments or persons could be hidden and discovered, colourful pieces of material that could be placed on different body parts and shaken off during specific action songs, or a teddy bear that could motivate children to engage in pretend-play or role-play activities. As many children with ASD get easily overwhelmed when they are presented with too many visual stimuli, the layout of the therapy room was very important. I used a blanket to cover up some of the instruments and objects (see Figure 4) and thereby reduced the amount of distractions in the room, which helped many children to settle and focus. The blanket also enabled and supported structure, as we included the acts of uncovering the instruments, choosing them one at a time, starting and finishing an improvisation consciously, and returning things to their place afterwards as integral parts of the session. However, this structure was not fixed or rigid. On the contrary, presenting the structure in the first place allowed children to experiment with it and venture out of it when they were ready to engage in more spontaneous ways. For children who appeared too withdrawn and rigid, I chose a different layout of the room with attractive instruments being openly accessible at all times (see Figure 3). Apart from reducing distractions and providing structure, a carefully chosen arrangement of furniture and instruments ensured the safety of the children, the therapist and the instruments.