Small actions can carry a lot of meaning

In these session snippets, 7-year-old Shinji is working with his music therapist Christine on goals including fine motor skills, coordination, social communication and early expressive communication.

Shinji is non-speaking and is developing his use of gestures to communicate. Music gives him opportunities to initiate, respond, make choices and connect with another person — while also working on physical and cognitive skills.

“I want the guitar”

Shinji points to the guitar to let Christine know he wants her to play.

Playing together

He follows sung directions to use his thumb and fingers to strum his ukulele, experimenting with different ways of holding and playing.

Counting fingers

He engages with Christine’s song, attempting to count fingers on his own hand and hers.

These moments might look simple, but they involve communication, attention, motor planning, hand-eye coordination, imitation and social connection — all happening within a motivating musical interaction.

This is one of the things we love about music therapy: music creates a meaningful shared space where therapeutic goals can be worked on naturally, together.

Get to know Registered Music Therapist Christine Morson.

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