Things I'm working on

[PeterPan]

I just wanted to share some of the things I'm working on. We went to an audiologist and got a variety of testing. I still haven't gotten the final report, but we were able to connect some dots. One of the things I'm working on as a result is pitch matching. I think logically it will lead to prosody work. Ds has had music therapy since he was 6, but he still continues to have problems with pitch matching. The audiologist suggested we use a visual solfege type approach. I have access to the Prodigies Music Academy materials through a beta with @dmmetler, so I'm using their curwen hand signals (like solfege).

We are using this progression.

1) discriminate note --when I play it, use the signal. If it's not the note, don't make a signal. After he can do that so he has it in his brain, 4 X discriminate from previously taught notes or not taught notes. He finds this very difficult, so we only do four trials and stop. 

2) high/low with the note--I play the note, use hands to show if it went *up* or down. 

3) pitch matching with note

So it's not perfect, and it's very fledgling. It's also very HARD, which is why I've just been doing 4 trials, a super small amount. I'm kind of considering going to multiple sessions a day, now that I know I have the tasks small enough that he can do them. I think we could do this 3X a day, still in these discrete trial chunks, and have him make good progress. Or maybe I shouldn't, lol. 

What I'm hoping is that really processing the range of notes and being able to match across the range will be the foundation piece that was missing for working on prosody. I went back through baby sound videos online. My research shows that babies acquire prosody by 18 months, ie. BEFORE LANGUAGE. And if you listen to baby cooing videos, you can actually match the notes of their cooing to prosody patterns. So babies, in cooing, are experimenting and imitating intonation patterns as they develop their prosody. Ds completely SKIPPED cooing, because of his apraxia and autism. So it seems logical to me that going back to this cooing stage and replicating the development that should have happened would be foundational.

My theory is that we should take the notes we're building and the ability to pitch match and first replicate intonation patterns with cooing before beginning an actual prosody program. I plan to buy the Rothstein prosody program and also several of the APD treatment materials I'm looking at include units on prosody. However I think for ds it will be more foundational and more natural in results if we go back and build these missing skills.

That's what I'm working on. It kind of feels like I feel in a rabbit hole, lol. But it's kinda cool too. It may work, who knows. If I stay really diligent, maybe we can finish our notes and cooing by Christmas. 

Meanwhile, we're going back through interoception work, this time doing every lesson in Kelly's materials very thoroughly and using her new Body Check Ring cards. https://www.kelly-mahler.com/product/body-check-ring/  We LOVE the Body Check Ring cards and are finding they finally get us over the hump with the language. They use the lower level language path from the main course materials, but they're done in a smaller format that is easy to print, laminate, and whip out. It's a perfect fit for him, and touching allows him to get out his response when he's having a big feeling. So that has been AMAZING. We had worked on interoception before, but we're finally taking it to the next level, where he can sit down with the ring, flip through the cards, and touch each thing and do a body scan. He is so CALM when he does this. I think by the end of this week we'll have covered enough that I may begin weaving it into our day with a quick run through the ring 3X a day or something. 

There are other things I'm pursuing, rabbit trails I'm falling into, lol. The APD materials hit a wide range of areas, so I'm thinking about what can be done concurrently and what needs to wait till I finish the pitch matching work. He seems to be eating up these challenging therapy type interventions. They're *hard* but he doesn't buck them. I think they're intriguing for him because they make him THINK. 

I used screen shots to create printables of the Burton digital books, because the order I placed with them was never filled. Apparently they are no longer in business? They did not reply to my queeries and Paypal gave me a refund. Anyways, I'm pursuing multiple workbooks from them and finding them worth our time. http://www.cdfieldtrips.com/choicemenu.html   They are catching some holes he had with tracking, sequencing, the alphabet, etc. And some of it was just weird stuff you couldn't put your finger on. We're particularly using her alphabet, tracking and reversals/rotations books. I also printed the poetry and will probably use that, as it seems to match where ds functions. I liked the Kwame Alexander book, but this is a more practical starting place for us. 

We're also working a bit with speed stacking. I had a set of the cups and timer/mat from the thrift store, so we've been slowly working on it. It's actually really challenging for him, but I guess that's why the OT in the dysgraphia lecture was saying to do it, lol. It was a Therapro webinar (I think?) but I can't find a link to it. They have another good one coming up on working memory.

https://www.therapro.com/Webinar-11-17-2020-Working-Memory-A-Refresher.html

Well that's the big stuff. We're also working on some life skills. I'm trying to teach him to clean his bathroom, and I think he can start swiffering the stairs to the basement. Took him to the store to buy a nintendo game with cash, so that's super practical, haha. He just has the funniest holes sometimes with how he thinks of money or the way to do something.

What are you guys working on? Any goals you're trying to finish before Christmas to put yourselves in a good place for January?

Edited November 12, 2020 by PeterPan

[Guest]

curwen signs are standard, so you should be able to find lots of other materials to use as well. Prodigies uses a slightly different sequence than I learned for teaching singing (in particular they introduce MRD before SLM), probably due to the goal of getting to recognizable songs sooner on the bells, but in general, is a really nice resource. It's also awesome to have a male singing model (and model in music in general). A lot of non-US programs teach solfege before note names, so there are a lot of resources available. 

 

Mostly, at this point we're just trying to get through the current combination of stressors with an almost 16 yr old high school senior, who is struggling with both isolation and lack of social activity and anxiety (which is, given numbers in our area, plus a major change and decision forthcoming, rather explainable). She requested that I try to find a counselor for her to talk with, so I have the initial meeting with a well regarded family therapy program that is doing teletherapy right now next week, and am hoping that they will prove a good fit.  

 

I am finishing up my teaching semester, which so far, has been surprisingly uninterrupted by COVID. We have the recital on the 21st, and then two weeks that had been scheduled as makeups that will honestly end up just being extra lessons for most of my students. Still planning to be hybrid in the Spring, unless things change. 

[PeterPan]

7 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

Prodigies uses a slightly different sequence than I learned for teaching singing (in particular they introduce MRD before SLM)

Ok, so if you want a laugh? I decided to teach *fa* first, since that was the note they said on their blog was the *hardest* for their students to learn, lol. I'm so hack, lol. But you're right, I haven't googled it yet to see what else is out there. I was just excited that I finally broke it down into such small steps that he could do it without stress. My dream is that we get far enough with the notes that he can start doing the Prodigies videos. We've had to break typing down into teeny tiny steps like this too. I think it's the autism and the anxiety. When things are hard, we just have to take the tiniest steps and do them over and over till he's chilled and comfortable in doing it. I loved that the discrimination work got him able to pitch match more readily. He got there pretty easily after the days of discrimination work. So I really think we're onto something. 

11 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

isolation and lack of social activity

Yeah, the way people hang around here has totally changed. It seems like your options are go to an indoor event with no masks or NOTHING. There are a lot of mental health consequences to that. In our state hospitalizations of children for stress have gone crazy high, making the news. 

I'm just thinking out loud here, but can they connect her with online peer group sessions? My ds is doing a peer session once a week, and it has been really good. I'd sign him up for more if we found more. It's not just the skills but the isolation thing. My ds is socially motivated and NEEDS interaction like that.

12 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

I am finishing up my teaching semester, which so far, has been surprisingly uninterrupted by COVID.

Yay!! That's awesome!!