Ariana's Posts

How We Did Neurologic Music Therapy Via Zoom

Posted on by Ariana
Me getting our drums for an activity during an NMT teletherapy session, Tony rocking in his rocking chair. All screenshots and photos for this post were done by either Ariana or Andy.

This week is another photographed journey, but this time we’re going to be moving past the challenges experienced in providing teletherapy to discuss the goals and therapeutic interventions for Tony’s NMT. We have been working on helping Tony increase his flexibility and spontaneous communication using Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT). Facilitating therapy looks different via teletherapy. I was usually a needed assistant even in clinic because of our son’s size and the nature of his deficits and behavioral challenges, but a second therapist had been located and re-approved just before the start of the pandemic so that we could work towards Tony being able to function in a therapy setting without me.

We were planning the transition from Jessi (who was leaving the country for graduate studies) as Tony’s primary NMT therapist to Acadia as the first cases of COVID were being diagnosed in the US. Pauline, who had previously been volunteering some at NMTSA (and was pictured as a volunteer in my last post discussing his music therapy at the clinic), had completed the steps necessary to be hired as a full music therapist and we were at the same time planning for her to become the second therapist so that I could be eased out of those sessions.

Acadia talking to Tony during the greeting portion of our session. He usually doesn’t make eye contact, but he listens.

As COVID cases arrived locally, NMTSA closed its doors and provided teletherapy only during those first few months. To maximize the benefit to Tony, we did two NMT teletherapy sessions per week, one with Pauline and one with Acadia (since we could not work towards to goal of removing me from the therapy sessions). During Pauline’s last weeks with NMTSA, Emmy (who will be taking her place) began to observe the sessions so that she and Tony could both get used to one another. Jessi, who has covered some of Tony’s teletherapy sessions for holidays during the pandemic) provided advisory support for the last session with Pauline and for the first couple sessions with Emmy.

Tony saying “hi” and picking the pictures and names of who he is greeting. Below, shown saying hello to Acadia on his speech device, and thinking about whose picture to pick while greeting Jessi, Pauline, and Emmy.
Usually the NMT therapist sings a greeting song where each person gets to take turns saying “hi.” And yep, my hair gets crazy sticking out all over the place, and it only gets worse as the day goes on. I own that 🙂
The next thing we do in his teletherapy sessions is squeezes to different parts of his body progressing from his feet upwards (feet, calves, and hips shown), done to both a song accompanied by guitar and metronome. This proprioceptive input helps Tony feel calmer in his body. He will often move back and forth between his rocking chair and crash pad for these, and for the past couple months that adjustments have been being made to his ADHD medications, he’s been getting up and running a lot during squeezes.
Jessi recommended rocking chair breaks to increase the amount of vestibular input he received in between each body part squeezed to help reduce his desire to run. I rock him back and forth because I can provide a stronger rocking motion which he enjoys more in therapy sessions. After hand squeezes, we roll a yoga ball or a peanut ball over his body on the crash pad to increase the proprioceptive input.
His NMT therapist will then talk with Tony about the number of remaining therapy tasks he needs to do and then give him some choices he can pick using his AAC.
Drumming is something Tony frequently chooses. We practice drumming at different height and with different body parts, the latter is to help increase his control over his own body.
Sometimes I don’t do the best job of getting the laptop adjusted so that the team can see what Tony is doing. We are drumming down low here.
We also work on Tony being able to bounce on a yoga ball to a musical beat. Shown with Acadia.
We also work on him being able to roll back and forth on his tummy with the yoga ball using his own abs and arm muscles for support and the pushing motions.
We also work on verbal sound production and following simple instructions while receiving extra vestibular input via rocking.
I usually provide a visual model of the shape as well as an auditory model with the sound, here Emmy is recommending to me that I try doing some gentle physical prompts on his face also to help stimulate production of the correct sound. That is shown below.
And, he was trying to sneak in some apps at the same time 😀
We end with a goodbye song, and Tony says goodbye using AAC to whichever therapists he is working with.
Our last goodbye with Pauline. Whew, still want to cry, like everyone we’ve worked with at NMTSA she is fabulous!
And now we’re saying goodbye for now to NMT teletherapy, with Acadia explaining to Tony that she would look different when she sees him in clinic next week because she’ll be wearing a mask. As per his norm, he listened but didn’t want to do much looking at her.

Ariana

3 thoughts on “How We Did Neurologic Music Therapy Via Zoom”

    1. What a pleasant surprise to have you visit me here in my comments 🙂 And thank you very much 🙂 I hope your day is going much better today and that you are able to find some peace and enjoyment in the weekend ahead!

    2. P.S. You may be able to appreciate some of the reasons why, but all first time comments go into moderation here. Sometimes additional ones as well. Because sometimes things get a bit crazier than my hair (and right now, it’s looking pretty epic), I might not get to moving a comment out right away, but I promise I will get to it and respond when I can. 🙂

Comments are closed.