Questar III’s music therapy program offers special education students the chance to improve their academic, social, and motor skills through music.
Music Therapist Mary Holliday actually designed the basis for the program for an assignment in college. The assignment required her to create a job proposal for a somewhere she’d like to work. After working in a summer program at Questar III, one of her colleagues suggested she submit the proposal to the BOCES for consideration, and it was accepted.
The Music Therapy program was born.
Holliday is the only music therapist within the BOCES, and she works with students in whichever districts or Questar III schools require music therapy.
Each student’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) either has goal and objectives already listed, or Holliday works with the student through a few meetings to create goals and objectives. The topics covered can vary- from skills like making eye contact and using greetings and manners to learning to tie shoes, telling time, reading, basic math, and motor skills, but they nearly always complement what is being taught in the classroom.
The idea behind music therapy is to use music to help kids learn and understand better by activating additional parts of the brain that aren’t always used in the regular classroom.
She says often the simple rhythms of music can help a student grasp a concept they have been having difficulty with.
Holliday says it’s common for people to see students playing instruments and think music therapy is just a small or one-on-one general music class, but the two are very different.
“While they want to teach this is a scale, this is how you play this, this is how you get a proper tone, I’m doing it for motor planning. Can you aim to hit just this part of the xylophone, can you make soft sounds and gentle sounds instead of playing as loud as you can,” she said.
While often kids use music therapy to complement what they’re working on in class, Holliday says sometimes it’s used more as a calming technique to help students focus.
“Some students may have difficulty focusing and be very active in the classroom and I come to take them and he’ll sit down in a chair for 25-30 minutes and do exactly what they’re supposed to do.”
She says teachers tell her quite often that after finishing a session of music therapy, students who might have had trouble focusing or paying attention are like totally different people.
“Music therapy isn’t always about teaching them, it’s just getting them to take a breath so that they can focus,” Holliday says.
Music therapy is available as an itinerant service and related service. For more information, please contact the Special Education office at 477-8771.
