15 Goal-Based Songs for Speech, Movement, and More
Part of being a Music Therapist is advocating for the profession. One of the ways we do this at Musical Bridges is to hold in-services with our community partners to educate and share the benefits of Music Therapy, and more specifically Neurologic Music Therapy. These presentations are vital to spreading awareness and fostering community with our fellow professionals. During these presentations, some of our biggest questions are about how to implement music in sessions and what music to use.
Other therapeutic professionals utilize music daily including speech, occupational, and physical therapists. Musical Bridges staff are highly trained and have the necessary credentials to provide Music Therapy, but our community partners do not have this. This does not however mean that they cannot use music IN therapy. In collaboration with our community partners, we want to share our top pre-recorded goal-oriented songs. At Musical Bridges, we don’t often use pre-recorded music in our practice, so we also want to share some songs that can be implemented outside of Music Therapy at home and by other professionals live.
Below we have a great mix of songs broken into goal categories to have in your arsenal as a parent and support professional to use live or recorded!
Songs for Speech
Rather than just speech, communication is one of the most common goals we address at Musical Bridges, with such high demand we have a plethora of songs and interventions at our disposal. Musical Bridges is a communication affirming practice and we celebrate all communication attempts. We work with clients who are non-speaking, utilize AAC devices, sign language, gestures, are fully verbal, and more. We address communication goals in the way that will benefit our clients the most. Our songs and interventions reflect this as well.
Here are some of our favorites!
Pocket Full of B’s- Hap Palmer
This song is great to utilize with a recording to work on a variety of consonant sounds. If you have an individual working with a device, you can implement the keyboard function or find the corresponding items within their vocabulary if applicable.
Apples and Bananas- Raffi
This is a great song to try out live! You can adjust the target sounds to whatever sounds the child is working on. The melody of this song is easy to pick up and have as a go to. We love to include a microphone with this song specifically.
Word Families Song for Kids- Patty Shulka
A great song for those individuals working on word families and linking different sounds. If you go live with this song, you can include any of the word families an individual is working on not just the ones in the recording!
Spatial Concepts- Songs for Speech
This song focuses on the spatial concepts of on, in, and under. The corresponding video has some great visuals to go along with the concepts. In a similar vein, you can use the recording to act out the concepts simultaneously for more hands-on learning!
Matilda the Gorilla- Mary Rice Hopkins
This song is always a favorite for working on different vowels! If you go for a live version you can change up the animal to fit the target sound is. Singing this song live also lends to repetition of the desired sounds, you can shorten and sing just the portions you are wanting to use rather than have each verse with the recording.
Songs for Movement/Pretend Play
When you think of movement to music your thoughts turn more toward using recorded music. This is one area where we are more likely to use recorded music, but we still have an abundance of songs we use live to move and groove with our clients. Here are some you can use both live and recorded!
The Goldfish- Laurie Berkner
This song is wonderful for pretend play, movement, academic skills, and life skills concepts all rolled into one. You get to pretend to swim, sleep, shower, ride a bike and more. All while working on academic concepts such body parts and directions; right, left, up, down, etc.
The Airplane- Laurie Berkner
This is a great song for working on leg movements. Within the song you are directed to spin, jump, gallop, and dance. All while pretending to ride around all over in an airplane!
We Are The Dinosaurs- Laurie Berkner
For your dino lovers this song especially is a fun way to get some movement in. The motions of this song primarily focus on leg and feet movement with marching and stomping.
Move it, Move it- Stephanie Leavell
Nothing beats a song that lays out exactly what it wants you to do! With a wide array of movements already included in this song you can take it a step further with an acapella version to add your own motions.
I Can Move My Body Like Anything- Jack Hartmann
Need an all over body movement song? This is the one for you! In this song you can address gross and fine motor skills, upper and lower body, and of course fun and silly pretend play!
Songs for Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is such a big part of our practice at Musical Bridges. Many of the individuals we work with have difficulty with sensory processing. Being able to assist them in regulating is integral within the therapeutic space, if an individual isn't regulated then moving forward with any kind of learning will become moot. Everyone has difficulty focusing and learning when they don't feel comfortable!
Take a Breath- Raffi
A go to when calming down! Taking a deep breath will help calm and center an individual and this song has a wonderful cadence that is perfect for this regulation exercise.
Yoga Song for Kids- Stephanie Leavell
Getting some form of movement is great for a variety of sensory needs like proprioceptive and vestibular input. This song has a simple routine to follow that will help with relaxing and calming down!
All About Self Control- Harry Kindergarten Music
This song puts a different name to the calm down game. Not only does it give you options on how to calm down, it also lets you know that your emotions are in your control.
Zones- Domenic Bianco
Using visuals with this song is a must! It associates how an individual is feeling with a color, giving a concrete visual to different emotions. This song makes it easy to categorize the diverse ways we feel.
Belly Breathe- Sesame Street
Another great song for deep breathing! This song also takes emotional regulation into consideration with examples on how you can calm down with a deep breath when you feel upset.
Bonus
Any song by The Learning Station or Super Simple Songs would be a great place to start on your journey of incorporating music into your practice.
The songs in this list can be used live or recorded. Live is our preference as there is more control over the song and interaction with our clients. Utilize the songs in the way that works best for you and the individual you are working with. Music is a motivator and always fun to include! If you have any questions about what kind of music, you should be using and how always feel welcome to ask a Music Therapist!
Send us an email or message with any questions you might have here.