ASD son refused music therapy on NHS!

[mamadadawahwah]

My son was assessed for music therapy but after the assessment the music therapist said he was too distracted and not focussed enough to continue with the sessions.

Pardon me, but i thought music therapy was to inculcate focus and attention. How can they expect a 2 year old asd child to have the focus to listen to mozart much less join in on the piano?

I politely suggested that the music therapist take all the posters down which she had all over the wall of disney characters and to put a lock on the door so my son would stop trying to run out. Further she just ran after him saying "no no" when he wouldnt do what she wanted. My son is in full time ABA now and i was trying to guide her to use some ABA principles to lessen his behaviour but she didnt get it.

what a waste of time and extremely disappointing. should i write a letter? Even if he was accepted to the program, he would only get four lessons. Do you get music therapy in your area?

I got music therapy for my dd when she was 3 and a half.
I guess the therapist has to assess whether or not your ds would get anything out of it and it may well be as he is so young it would be worth waiting until he is that bit older.

ds1 gets music therapy at school, but it is a slog for him and his therapist. A lot of music therapy is very unstructured- that's the point of it, which can make it hard for children on the autistic spectru.. DS1's music therapist has worked hard with his teacher to make it more structured initially.

Not every therapy is going to work with every child (especially something like music therapy- it is therapy rather than say ABA which is a very efficient teaching technique). Save your energy for things that work. Or try again in a few years when he may be happier to stay in one room.

Yes, i will take on board what you all say. He is probably just too young and too distracted, but this therapy is specifically geared for asd kids his age. I cant see it working for many of them. Oh well, more time for ABA.

I hope you find something that works soon. music can be great therepy for some kids, others respond well to more sensory stuff (light shows etc), and some dont. its all trial and error.

Sorry - can I hijack slightly and ask how you all went about getting music therapy for your children? My son (probably ASD) responds better to music than anything else. Singing is the one sure fire way to get his attention and he's learnt nearly all his words from songs. I think he would really benefit, but no-one's ever offered it to me and i didn't realise you could get it on the NHS.

Hi sphil, we only got it cause our particular CDC has a music therapist on board, but only for one year. It depends on if it is offered, it is not something that one is entitled to, as far as i know, its just if it is there, you can get it.And by the way, I had to fight for it, cause she only takes four kids per term.

We did music therapy for about 2 years at Nordoff Robbins which happens to be on our doorstep. It was never "offered", but as a charity we paid £15 per half hour session. I went along to the assessment session thinking it was going to be all "hug a tree" but was impressed that they DID communicate with DS through music. I never felt that it would or did make a significant differenced to his ASD or learning/behaviour but it was great to get a different perspective and to remind ME to think about his emotional side iyswim. Interestingly enough, his music therapists often came up with the same observations and ideas as his ABA team! I actually thought it was quite complementary to ABA and far better than "hard core" psychotherapy. At that time I also badly needed to learn to take DS out on my own and this was an easy first step as I knew where we were going and when BUT there were some unknowns such as where we would park and having to get him from the car to the centre, no easy task at first!

Davros do you know what type of therapy ds' therapist used. Ours tried intensive interaction, but is now trying to incorporate PECS (god knows how) but seems very open to suggestions. ds1 is very musical so I've always been sad that it didn't work too well- but I think often music is "too much" for him- and sends him over!

I don't actually, I didn't know there was more than one type of music therapy, doh! You could look up Nordoff Robbins, it is very well known and the baby of many music celebs. They certainly didn't try to intensively interact, good god! It was all very "On ds'S terms" in theory but in reality they didn't let him run amok (sp?) and gave him gentle direction. His main therapist (he had 2, one to play/sing and the other to run!) used him as a case study at one of their conferences, "interaction through resistance" ho ho!

ha- may be the same- trouble is ds1's running isn't so much amock- he won't enter the room. If he does he spends the whole time peering under the door.

Well, as parents aren't part of the therapy and its a relationship between the therapists and the child..... that's their problem! I used to drink tea, read catalogues and goss with the receptionist!

Ds2 has been going to Music therapy for over a year and I feel that it has helped him a lot. The music therapist was dubious at first whether it would do but she agreed to stick with it for a few sessions and I feel that he has made progress. In his case it fulfils several functions:

• a purely physical function - he has problems with co-ordination, fine motor skills and oral motor skills. He has learnt to blow a recorder which a big achievement for him; hitting a drum with a drum stick the right way round, strumming a guitar - these are all big things for him to do and it has given him a sense of achievement. I don't think we could have got him to try these things outside of music therapy.
• it has provided a structured environment where he can relax and not feel tested - for a long time he wouldn't try anything for fear of failure and from being continually assessed, and it has helped to feel safe to enjoy himself and try new things
• it has helped him to enjoy doing something with someone - he is so sweet marching round the room blowing on his recorder while she plays her clarinet and this is the only time I have ever seen him dance
• it has helped him with following a sequence and organising himself - for example she does a game where he plays the xylophone to put me to sleep and then hits the cymbal to wake me up - it took weeks for him to get the hang of it and to remember to put me to sleep before he woke me up, and pick up the stick to do it etc.

I have been interested how similar to the RDI approach some of the music therapy approaches are. For example in RDI, you try to get the child to "share emotion" with you in the anticipation of an event they enjoy - so the first thing Ds2's music therapist does is a hello song - she sits in front of him with a guitar, waits for eye contact and a smile from him (but not prompted in any way) and then starts to sing.

I have to say that Ds2 likes music and verse but I wouldn't say he is particularly moved by music. It's a lot more about providing a way of communicating without necessarily having to use words. I also feel that his music therapist is the therapist who understands him best with the exception of portage possibly. She has much more the measure of him than the SALT, OT or clinical pyschologist.

Davros,

In our case I am very much part of the therapy and join in with a lot of it. I used to have to translate what Ds2 was saying but the therapist has got the hang of his speech, which again is a lot more than most of the other people working with him.

Your posts on this are very interesting. I know nothing other than the Nordoff Robbins method. Parents did not participate in the sessions as the relationshp was between the therapists and the child (as I said). But they did video everything and we had a meeting at the end of each term where they showed me selected clips and we discussed them. This is when I found that we often had the same views/ideas and they often matched those of his ABA team. TBH, it was great for me to take DS to something that I didn't have to direct or participate in. This just goes to show that there ARE different methods unknown to me!

Certainly not every parent participates even with our particular music therapist. I think it depends on the child and what she is trying to get out of it. Our music therapist is writing a book (in which Ds2 is a case study!) and she showed me the relevant chapter. There was one child who was selectively mute I think and she specifically didn't include the parents as obviously the idea was to get the child communicating away from the parents.

Oh I'm not involved- it's at school- I'm just involved in a "we can't get him in the room, any ideas?" type way.

This is so interesting - we've got a visit from the CDC Health Visitor tomorrow, so I'll ask her about the possibility of music therapy.

I've never been offered music therapy for ds1 or ds2. I don't think anyone does it in this area.

Do ask Sphil - we have two music therapists at our CDC. Ds2's portage worker referred us otherwise I would have never have known about it.

Asked HV today and she's going to look into it for me.