Hi Janna,
I'm a musician and psychotherapist, so I don't have a music therapy degree.
But I have been working with music therapeutically here in Wisconsin. 
I wonder if you know of Raffi, who is Canadian, and sings children's songs.  He's wonderful, and even babies respond to him.  Fun songs, silly songs, great rhythm.
Might give it a try.  Let me know if it's helpful.
Good luck -- Ryan's lucky to have you in his life!
Sara

Janna Hoskin wrote:

Hi, I'm pretty new to the list... not sure how many people are actually
music therapists here, but I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback
anyway.  :)

I work as an ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapist for a little
boy (almost 4) who has autism.  When I started working with him back in
August, he was effectively nonverbal and uncompliant to the therapy
(there are five of us working with him).  It was natural for me to just
start singing kids' songs to him, and his Mom is convinced that this is
part of why he is now almost functionally verbal (he'll request things
but is mostly echolalic and into verbal stims).  I go into their home
an extra hour each week to do half an hour of one-on-one singing and
music stimulation followed by half an hour of 'Kindermusik' (I'm not
really qualified to teach this, but that's the material I'm using to
guide the time).  The problem is that right before Christmas, Ryan
started to get tired of the one-on-one sessions.  They're on hold now
until I come up with something new and exciting.

Goals include functional speech and socialization (that's why we have
the group time), and possibly even appropriate play with toys.

I'm not a trained music therapist, though I'm going to go back to
school in a few years and get a degree in MT (at Capilano College in
Vancouver, British Columbia or Wilfrid Laurier in Kitchener-Waterloo in
Ontario - I'm Canadian).  My undergrad degree is in music composition.

If anyone out there is a music therapist and has some ideas of
activities and songs I could use with Ryan, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Ryan's Mom isn't all that impressed with the music therapist we saw
here (once; she canceled two appointments at the last minute, which
meant that Ryan's days were all screwed up), so she's not wanting to go
back to her.

I'd also appreciate any thoughts on good books I could read.  I want to
specialize in autistic kids, but anything would be wonderful - I'm a
voracious reader and I know that I'm going to have to adapt everything
I learn at school to work with 'my kids' - the few psych classes I took
in university, the profs didn't know much at all about autism; it's
like autism is maybe a chapter, if not simply a footnote, in most
people's training...

Thanks for any and all help!

-Janna, ABA therapist to Ryan, age 3

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