Working in the special education field can be challenging at times, but I have never looked at it that way. And it’s no wonder why: I grew up in a household with a child who required special education. Except, her education didn’t seem weird or outcast-like. It totally made sense. I guess it was because I was living with her.
Jasmine, my sister, learned best through music. When she was six (1990) she had a music therapy assessment and qualified for services. When the music therapist worked with the speech therapist on cause/effect skills, Jasmine eventually understood. Now Jasmine was creating her own cause/effect moments through using various instruments during music therapy. This skill transfered over to using technology cause/effect to operate the blender during cooking class. She turned a sewing machine on and off to help make clothing. Eventually, the simple cause/effect skill grew into learning to use a voice-output switch device to sing song phrases at the correct time in a song. Jasmine would have to activate the switch to ‘sing’ her part. When she learned that, she started to learn to respond to phrases in stories and answer simple questions via this voice-output switch. The next step was sequencing a number of these switches for song phrases and then spelling her name. The learning never ends….
It is because of Jasmine that I became a music therapist. I decided in 1990 that I would make this my goal and I have accomplished this. I love my job. I love my students. I love what I can see them do with music and how I see them transfer that skill into real life learning and skills. My students are the best! They always amaze me – not because I doubt what they can do and they exceed my expectations (though they do sometimes), but because they are talented and gifted and smart! Sometimes they just need to help finding the right way to sing their songs.