Come here often to find the latest tips, news, and activities you can use at home
Types of Therapy for Autism: 9 Therapies To Consider
Getting an autism diagnosis can be daunting. You may have questions about the next steps and how you can set your child up for success. Therapy is a common step in a post diagnosis journey, but where to start? There are so many options from traditional to non-traditional therapies and we are here to tell you some pros and cons to the multitude of options you have waiting for you!
Spring Break Hacks - How to make the most of your break!
Spring break is upon us, and with it comes a disruption in routine. We here at Musical Bridges understand that routines are so important and help make your kiddos feel comfortable and secure. We want to share some ideas to implement over spring break to make the most of it, while having fun too!
Neurologic Music Therapy Breakdown: MEFT
MEFT is the use of improvisation and composition exercises in a group or individually to practice executive function skills such as organization, problem solving, decision making, reasoning, and comprehension, within a social; context that provides important therapeutic elements such as performance products in real time, temporal structure, creative process, affective content, sensory structure, and social interaction patterns (Dolan 2002).
Neurologic Music Therapy Breakdown: DSLM
What is DSLM?
DSLM is the specific use of developmentally appropriate musical materials and experiences to enhance speech and language development through singing, chanting, playing musical instruments, and combining music, speech, and movement (Thaut 2005).
Put simply DSLM is the use of music/music experiences to increase speech and language skills.
Neurologic Music Therapy Breakdown: MACT
Our last post regarding Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) gave a list of definitions for each of the techniques. Now it's time to get to the nitty gritty. What is this and how can it help? We will be breaking down each NMT technique in an individual post to help our families better understand how and why we do what we do! First on our list is one of our therapist's favorites— Musical Attention Control Training or MACT.
Neurologic Music Therapy Definitions
As Neurologic Music Therapists, we employ a variety of techniques in our work. We thought it would be useful to have them all in one place as a simple point of reference. For parents and caregivers, refer to these definitions to learn the acronyms when reading our monthly documentation. For others, we hope these definitions give you an overview of Neurologic Music Therapy. Please reach out to us to learn more.
An Introduction to the Katie Beckett Waiver in Tennessee
The first Katie Beckett waiver was implemented in 1981 after President Ronald Reagan was inspired by the story of Katie Beckett. She was a young girl in Iowa who developed a brain infection when she was 5 months old which led to her being paralyzed and spending three years in the hospital. After the hard work of many advocates, the Katie Beckett program launched in Tennessee in November 2020 and is available for ages 1-18.