- Well, good evening everyone, and welcome to Preservation Hall. My name is Will Smith and I'll be one of your panelists today. I'm an African-American man. My hair is very low and it's black with mango gray. I'm wearing a lavender purple shirt and my screen background is actually the band stand here at Preservation Hall. I wanna welcome each of you to our webinar series, entitled "New Orleans Music and Art in Special Education." We are so excited to have you join us. Before we get started, let me give you just a little background about our organization. Preservation Hall was established in the early 1960s. It's a live music venue that features New Orleans' traditional jazz music. It also welcomes audiences of all ages and actively provides music opportunities for people with disabilities. Preservation Hall is a place not only of historical importance, but also a place that plays an important role in today's music scene. Orders from every genre, including Arcade Fire the Foo Fighters, Black Keys, My Morning Jacket, and so many others have sought to explore the origins of jazz, America's only true and original art form. Through this series, we invite educators, parents, and organizations serving people with disabilities to join us as we seek to increase music access to students. This webinar will explore the use of learner's senses to help the mind work in concert with the body. - My name is JoDee Scissors. I am the founder of PaperPlanes ED. I am a Caucasian woman from European descent. I have long, wavy brown hair. I'm wearing a navy shirt with three vertical stripes and I have two beauty marks on the left side of my face. So before we get started with our panelists, we are going to discuss some of the Zoom features to better serve you during the webinar. Everyone will be muted until the end. Your video will remain off until the Q&A session where you have the opportunity to ask questions and offer feedback and comments. If you want to pin anyone, feel free. We have our ASL interpreter, Laura Siciliano here tonight if in case you need the ASL accommodations. You can also choose the live transcript option and expand your screen. All right, so as if we were in the hall, what we're gonna do first is do some stage introductions or some might call this an icebreaker. So you, our audience, our participants tonight, you are our first stage introductions. We wanna know who is with us tonight who came to learn with us, to grow with us, and participate in the webinar. So in the chat box, I would like you to tell three things about yourself, your name or stage name if you're a performer, the city and state you're representing, and a favorite song or instrument. So I have an example there of myself. My name is JoDee or some people call me Jo, I'm from Washington, DC, and my favorite song is "Ready for Love" by India Arie. So over the chat, drop those three things so we can get to know who is with us and who is on this journey of learning with us. I'll give you about 30 seconds. All right, looks like we've got New York representing. - [Will] Yes. - [JoDee] Long Beach, all right. Silver Spring, Michael Miele. Oh, I see some familiar names in there. Oh, I see Bonnie's in there, all right. We've got Lake Charles, Louisiana, Ohio. We are representing so many, Boston, all right. This is awesome, I'm so glad you're sharing all of this because you are part of this learning community with us. We have all come together collectively to bring more equitable learning opportunities and music to students with disabilities, so thank you for being here. All right, love seeing many of those familiar names in the chat in new names too. Okay, so I'm gonna turn my chat or my video off, because now it's time to learn from your panelists. Let me introduce to you who you've already met already is Will Smith. He is a special education teacher and trumpeter, and Meredith Sharpe, who is a neurologic music therapist. All right, let's get started. - Today's agenda will include defining sensory integration, which we'll talk about how the five senses affect how we relate to music. Then next, we'll talk about music as a sensory experience, in which we'll talk about how music makes you feel. Then sensory needs of children with disabilities. I have nearly everyone enjoys music, and to some degree, everyone can participate. Next, we'll talk about how music can help. It can help, research says it helps in many, many, many ways, and music helps to support the sensory system and its integration. The experimentals and strategies in which we'll experiment with rhythms, movement, considering instrumentation, we'll combine visual and auditory materials and consider the order of activities and successful learn. Then we'll have an exit ticket where I'll ask you guys a few questions or perhaps a question about how you feel about this. How did it make your body feel? Next, we're gonna talk about some of the common signs that we ought to be all should be aware of as we try to help special learners. Some common signs of sensory processing difficulty include problems in responsiveness. This may express itself in a variety of areas. For example, visually sensitive students may exhibit problems, locating and organizing their materials and supplies, or they may react in small changes in routine. Auditory, students, it may affect their way to include or interact or overreact to louder unexpected noises, such as an intercom or fire drill. They may require repeated oral directions. Other sides include difficulty standing in line or being close to others. Some students may fidget or walk around or become withdrawn or even have tantrums. Maybe even chew on non-edible items. Unfortunately, many times these actions may be mistakenly seen as threatening behavior or problematic behavior. When in actuality, these actions may have a much deeper meaning and be release for the student. - Well, good evening, everyone. As JoDee said, I am Meredith Sharpe. I'm a neurologic music therapist and the owner of Sharpe Notes Music Therapy. I've been practicing music therapy now for about 11 years and I really enjoy collaborating with schools, outpatient clinics and hospitals. I'm also an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans. And one of my greatest joys is working with other therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists, from whom I have learned great amounts, especially in regards to tonight's topic of sensory integration. I am a Caucasian woman from Northern European descent. I am wearing a green shirt. I have my hair pulled back in a bun. So we're gonna dive into, what is sensory integration? Sensory processing theory was first described in the 1970s by Dr. Anna Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist and clinical psychologist. And while working with individuals with disabilities, she found that many of her clients struggled to assess, integrate, and respond effectively to information from the environment. So she went on to define sensory integration as the neurological process that organizes sensation from one's own body and from the environment, and makes it possible to use the body effectively with the environment. So when we think of our senses, and you can see in the picture here, we think of the five main senses, touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell. As we use these senses To pick up information from the environment, our brains are constantly working to register this information, modulate or adjust, discriminate this information, and then respond to this information. If we think about it, we all have certain sensory needs and preferences. Some of us may not like the feel of certain clothes because of its material. Listening to music or white noise while working may help some of us while others need total silence. We may not enjoy certain foods because of their texture, or we have found that chewing gum helps us to focus just a little bit more while we're working. So we'll go to the next slide. So in addition to our five senses, we have hidden senses, and specifically, the vestibular system and the proprioceptive system. The vestibular system involves our sense of balance, knowing where our body is in space. It helps us to know if we are moving or standing still, how fast we are moving and in what direction. The vestibular nerve is located in the inner ear. And if any of you have experienced vertigo or motion sickness, you have experienced a disturbance within your vestibular system. Working very closely with the vestibular system is our proprioceptive system, which is our muscle and joint sense. The proprioceptive receptive system tells our brains how to perform certain movements, how to stretch or contract muscles, the timing and force needed for a particular movement, and it works to help modulate the vestibular system. So when an athlete like we see pictured here is working to kick a soccer ball, their vestibular and proprioceptive systems are working together to keep the body in balance and help the body perform the coordinated movements. So knowing how hard I need to kick that soccer ball to go a certain distance. When we drink from a cup, these systems help us to know where our bodies are as we tilt our head back and know exactly the timing and force needed to drink so that we do not spill on ourselves. We'll go to the next slide. So I wanted to take a minute to show an image of our brain and how interconnected our senses are. There is much that could be said on this topic, but I just wanted to highlight a couple of points, especially as they relate to working with our students. When we talk about sensory integration, it's a very sophisticated process that involves the central nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord. When we look at the brain, we're gonna first look at the brain stem, which you can see is located at the base of the brain controlling the flow of information between our brain and the rest of our body. Most of this information is transmitted automatically without our conscious awareness, like when we're breathing. The cerebellum, which you can see in green, just behind the top of the brainstem filters sensory input and organizes our movements. And then the cerebral cortex, which is divided into four lobes, is located higher in the brain, and is associated with higher brain function. So this is where we think, feel, speak, and coordinate voluntary body movements. And lastly, the spinal cord, which runs from our brainstem down our spine contains nerve fibers that carry sensory information to the brain and motor messages to the body. So this amazing central nervous system works together to integrate and modulate our senses so that we can function effectively in our environments. You can now see that the first stop of sensory information and integration is located in the lower levels of the brain. Information must pass through here first before our higher levels of brain can think, analyze, feel, and apply critical thinking. This is important for us to understand because it explains why doing higher cognitive tasks, such as listening to me speak and absorbing information may be more difficult if there is background noise if we feel off balance or physically uncomfortable, hungry or tired. This then translates to our students. If one or more of their sensory systems is not functioning effectively, it will be very difficult for them to pay attention and learn new concepts. - Just as Meredith said, studies in neuroscience said that music can help enhance the brain function in children. Musical activities, such as playing an instrument, singing, or just listening to music, stimulate the brain. And this brain workout leads to improved brain structure and formation of new neural connections. So let's take a break from what we've been discussing and try to connect some of the things we've talked about. - So we're gonna dive into some of the elements of music and talk a little bit more specifically about those. We know that music as a whole is a sensory experience as described by music therapist, Dorita Berger in her book, "Music Therapy, Sensory Integration and the Autistic Child," it is important to consider these elements of music as tools for sensory integration. In particular, I wanna focus on rhythm and its implications. So as we look at rhythm first, which consists of several components itself, including pulse, pattern, and tempo. Before we dive into these components, we're gonna talk about rhythmic entrainment and rhythmic internalization. Dr. Michael Thaut, the founder of Neurologic Music Therapy has done extensive research with his colleagues on the brain's perception of music and rhythm, and how they can be used clinically to help those with neurological disorders. This research has revealed that the motor system is very sensitive to the arousal of the auditory system. In fact, the motor system responds automatically to temporal information relayed to the brainstem, so this explains why our body may respond to rhythm when we're not even consciously aware. We may find ourselves automatically tapping our foot or our finger to a beat without even realizing it. An infant's breathing pattern will automatically adjust to an external stimulus, such as the steady beat of a soft lullaby. This process is what we call rhythmic entrainment, and it's the alignment of the body's internal pulse with an external pulse. Thaut and colleagues found in one study that steady and stable pairings of rhythmic auditory cues, such as a metronome or steady beat, and a rhythmic motor response, like foot tapping or finger tapping were achieved almost instantaneously. As Berger notes when we entrain with a pulse, we begin to internalize this pulse, and this rhythmic internalization has the potential to organize sensory processes, improve attention, language, motor planning, and arousal level. So when we think of rhythm, one component is the pulse and we can think of it as the heartbeat of a song. We may feel as we're evenly spaced beats in 4/4 time, or three pulses within a waltz or swing style. We feel and process these in very different ways in our bodies. The even beats of a march may inspire us to clap or move our feet to the steadiness of each pulse. While the swaying of a lullaby or waltz may inspire us to rock or sway, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. On top of the pulse we have various rhythmic patterns that can especially be filled with the offbeat patterns of jazz music. The ebb and flow of these patterns circle around in and out of the pulse. We experience these rhythmic patterns in speech as certain words within a sentence are emphasized more than others. So thinking about the rhythmic patterns of our speech may greatly help our students attend, comprehend, express, and especially for those who are non-verbal. The tempo refers to the speed of the pulse and the corresponding music. When we think of our internal rhythm and the internal rhythm of our students, we can associate a certain tempo. For example, when we feel tired or unmotivated, we could say that our tempo of being slow, when we are excited, maybe angry or giddy, we could say that our tempo of being is fast. From experience and the research mentioned that above, we know that music with slower tempos can help to calm our bodies as a lullaby soothes a baby. We know that music with faster tempos can awaken and stimulate our bodies as music at a sporting event invigorates the crowd. These implications are important for us to consider as we assess our student's internal tempo and the tempo they need to be successful in the classroom. The other musical elements, such as melody, harmony, timbre and dynamics have great effect as well on our sensory experience of music. A melody with larger intervals such as, ♪ Somewhere over the rainbow ♪ ♪ Way up high ♪ will feel very different from the melody with small intervals. ♪ This little light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪ Different sensations may be felt when listening to piece in a major key versus a minor key. We may be attracted to certain instruments because of their timbre or textural quality of their sounds. Without question, the dynamics or loudness and softness of a piece have effect on our bodies and minds. So I'm gonna turn it over to Will now who's gonna lead us in our first experiential. - That was quite enlightening, Meredith. So let's take just a bit of a break from our discussions, and try to connect some of the things we've just learned. And let's listen to some music from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. We'll begin with the song "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." while you listen, we'd like for you to make a mental note of what stands out for you. Is it the rhythm? Is it the timbre? Is it the melody? While listening, we'd like you to feel free to allow your bodies to respond to the sound of the music. Maybe the music will make you feel like tapping your feet or clapping your hands, or maybe you will sway side to side, or even get up and dance. Here now is the Preservation Hall Jazz Band with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." - I think it might be on mute. I'm not sure everyone can hear it. - [JoDee] Let's start that over. - Thank you, JoDee. We'll go back to the other one too. So that was "When the Saints Go Marching." So thanks for hanging with us. All right, so Will, do you wanna describe a little bit about that beat? - Well, sort of, I thought that the tempo of the music was a lot quicker than we had anticipated, you guys hear for the first selection, but it still serves the purpose of giving you a chance to listen and feel and allow your body to respond to what the music does to it. Does it energize you? Does it help you feel relaxed? Does it stimulate you? So the purpose of that song was to get you to try to feel the music as well with your senses instead of just listening. - Great, and now we'll slow down a little bit with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." Good, so from those two examples, you can try to think of, as Will said, not only we're used to associating music with simply hearing it, but inviting you into the experience of what are all my senses telling me about this music? How was "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" different from "When the Saints Go Marching In"? And so we're hoping that you were able to get something out of that experience and feel maybe some different sensations with each of those. So we're gonna get into now talking about specific sensory challenges that we might see in our classrooms. So challenges of sensory processing can occur with any of the senses, and during any of the phases of processing sensory information. Sensory processing disorder can also coexist and often coexist with other diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and cognitive disorders. Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, an occupational therapist and researcher of sensory processing disorder, subdivided these challenges into three types that we see here on this slide. Sensory modulation disorder refers to when someone has difficulty regulating their responses to sensory stimulation. Sensory discrimination disorder refers to when someone has trouble interpreting the characteristics of certain stimuli. And sensory-based motor disorder refers to when someone struggles with balance and motor coordination. For the purposes of this webinar, we're gonna focus on sensory modulation as this directly pertains to helping our students regulate their bodies and minds to learn and grow. Sensory modulation itself has three subcategories, sensory over-responsivity, sensory under-responsivity, and sensory craving. And we'll go on to the next slide. So here this table, as we see outlined some of the things that we might see, when we look at the three different responses of sensory modulation disorder, we see from this table that these responses can occur within any of the sensory systems that we've discussed. And I'd like to go through these just a bit and highlight what we might see from children within the music classroom setting. So a child who is over-responsive to sensory stimuli may be sensitive to touch and avoid certain instruments. I've noticed that several students with whom I work do not like the rough feeling of guitar strings. These children may cover their ears with louder noise or music, avoid movement activities, or demonstrate uncoordinated movements when trying to play a certain instrument. When there is a very bright light or too much visual material presented at one time, over-responsive children may become overwhelmed and cover their eyes. If they are over-responsive to certain smells, an old banana in the trash may bother them more than it bothers other children. So a child who is under-responsive to sensory stimuli may be unaware of touch, may seem unaware of certain music or sounds, or won't catch themselves if they begin to fall. They may show no initiative to move or try an instrument. They may stare at objects as if looking through them. And lastly, a child who craves sensory stimuli is seeking stimulation for certain senses because they are not naturally getting a stimulation. I've worked with children who seek out instruments with certain textures, like a guitar or a cabasa. They may really enjoy loud music and want to play everything loudly. Many students with whom I've worked have a desire to constantly spin, walk around, or rock. Some may seek shiny objects or be fascinated with light coming through the blinds in the classroom. Many of my students who seek visual stimulation love the ocean drum because of the movement of the beads. Other students Try to taste or smell instruments as Will mentioned in the very beginning. We'll go to the next slide. So ideally, we all want to feel just right. There can be a tendency, as Will mentioned earlier, to see only the outward behavior of our students and even label our students by this behavior, but there's always a reason behind the behavior. When we realize this, we can help our students modulate and feel more comfortable. It's important to take the time to observe and assess what our students need. We need to meet them in the moment, wherever they are, and then gradually help to change their arousal level. We can help them feel more comfortable by adjusting the environment, providing appropriate musical material and being flexible. So I wanted to share with you all some, get into kind of some specific examples, and hopefully, give you some tools here. A child who is over-responsive to sensory stimuli will need different things depending on which stimuli is overwhelming for them. Once you get to know your students, you will be able to determine what works best for them. This figure and the figures on subsequent slides consists of ideas just to get you thinking because you know your students best and every child is different. These ideas come from my own experience, my wonderful occupational therapy and music therapy colleagues, and several sources that are listed on the references slide at the end of the presentation. So in general, students who have over-responsive sensory systems need calming, steady, and predictable input or music. Steady, predictable rhythms with soft dynamics and low tones can be very grounding and calming for the central nervous system. Melodies with small steps and predictable patterns with little variants can convey safety and soothing. Students may be attracted to certain styles of music or songs that help them regulate and adjust to the environment. We can then adjust the tempo and dynamic level of these songs even the meter at times to fit the needs of the moment. So if I know one of my students loves a certain song from "Sesame Street," but is overstimulated in this moment, I can then adjust the tempo, the dynamic level to meet where he is in the moment, and help that student. Songs or music that we create for our students in the moment can be very effective. This may include gentle improvisatory humming or a very simple soft drumbeat, and I wanted to show you an example. So if I have my steady soft. Some students may enjoy the feel of a heavy instrument in their lap through which they can feel calming vibrations. Other materials such as bubbles or scarves that I use quite a bit, maybe incorporated to help redirect the overwhelmed sensory system. I've used scars like this one along with soft, steady predictable music, to invite my students to apply deep pressure to their legs or move in a slow rocking pattern. Along with these materials, dimming the lights, creating physical space around the student and limiting the musical input can be effective. It might be that only using your voice or only using a drum beat is the best way to go. And never underestimate the power of silence which can be musical in and of itself. And I wanna take a minute to brag about one of my interns who was working with me. We were working with a group of children who were all very overstimulated, and the room we were in had no windows and just the bright overhead light. So we had a gathering drum in the middle of the room, and he turned off the lights and took the flashlight from his cell phone and put it underneath the gathering drum, which created this beautiful glow, just right there and the children were able to come around and calm their bodies and we played just some soft, steady repetitive rhythms over that drum. It was really beautiful idea. So we'll go on to the next slide. For a child who is under-responsive to sensory stimuli needs stimulating sensory input to awaken the body and mind. Introducing rhythmic variations, syncopations, changes in meter, and dynamic changes can stimulate the auditory sensory system, which can then send messages to other parts of the brain inspiring movement, initiative, attention, and overall engagement. Music and movement activities can further this response by coordinating body movements with the sound stimuli. For those students of mine who are under-responsive, we stand up, we turn around, we raise our arms high, we lean over and touch our toes, and so forth. Changing the body's position, particularly the head position can be really effective in awakening the central nervous system. In some of my groups, we will roll cabasas, such as this one, up and down, our arms and our legs to stimulate the tactile sense. I will give some of my students heavier mallets or a heavier rain stick to play to get their muscles more engaged. Using the structure of familiar songs with adaptations that adjust tempo or dynamic level can catch the attention. I've used GarageBand and background tracks to add more layers of music stimulate the senses. Bringing in different styles of music may be effective as well as this will introduce new scales, intervals and timbres. So I wanted to show you, for example, if we think about some of these more dynamic changes and rhythms, something that could be used would be something like this. Environmental considerations may include brighter lighting or different seating arrangements. Some students may become more active on the floor sitting in a certain position, sitting on a therapy ball or in a particular chair. We'll go to the next slide. A child who is craving or seeking sensory input needs certain stimulation that satisfies their need while also helping to center and gain control. This can mean different things for different students depending on your particular sensory need. For a child who is continuously moving around the room, music that matches and encompasses this movement can help bring awareness to their body and its needs. Combining movement activities, such as jumping on a trampoline or bouncing on a therapy ball with music that is rhythmically tied to their movements can give children the needed input they are seeking, while also helping them gain control and focus to the movement. Introducing stops and goes to this music and movement activity can then help a child develop further impulse control and regulation. So sometimes, I know I've used like a therapy ball and I'll be working with a child and while they're bouncing, we might put that auditory stimulus in. ♪ We're bouncing, bouncing, bouncing on the ball and stop ♪ ♪ Ready, set, go ♪ ♪ We're bouncing bouncing bouncing on the ball ♪ So we're connecting their auditory system with their vestibular need for that input. Incorporating the rhythm of a child's rocking can bring a new level of awareness. As we then adjust the tempo of this rhythm, encouraging the child to rock with us, we can create opportunities for control and modulation. Music and movement sequences, such as clap, clap, pat, pat, roll and roll, can provide the internalization of a steady pulse with active participation to help regulate that central nervous system and promote attention. Certain familiar songs can provide opportunities for purposeful movements or actions that give students needed stimulation, but in a structured way. So we think of songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," "Hokey Pokey," "Wheels on the Bus," these songs that naturally have movements integrated in along with the pulse and beat. Again, the use of certain tactile instruments, heavy mallets or wind instruments can provide the input a child may be seeking. Adjusting instrument position can also be effective in providing a sense of meaning movement within a structured activity. Some of my students respond very well to an intervention I created called moving drum, where they must strike the drum as it moves around them to different positions. So a very simplified version of this is ♪ Moving drum, moving drum ♪ ♪ Where will it stop ♪ ♪ Moving drum, moving drum ♪ ♪ Where will it stop ♪ ♪ Up high, down low ♪ ♪ To the side, to the side ♪ ♪ Up high, down low ♪ And so forth. You may use a steady background beat or incorporate this into a song and this idea is actually outlined in one of the lesson adaptations that we have on the Preservation Hall website. With some of my older students who are able to cognitively understand, we will practice arousal modulation through music by playing crescendos and diminuendos, accelerandos and ritardandos, and use of visuals can be very helpful with this exercise. So for example, we can actually teach them, I don't know if you all can see that. So if you have a board, if you can picture the image of a diminuendo and you can actually be the conductor if your students are all playing instruments, and as you move your finger across from loud to soft, they have to follow that movement. And we are teaching the brain how to make those changes and how to modulate, which corresponds to changes of being able to calm the body. Thinking about your student's body position and how they need to sit in the classroom can again be very effective. Many times, beginning with an active movement and music activity, as mentioned above, will help prepare their bodies and minds for other activities later in the lesson that require more focus and stillness. Okay. So now we're gonna apply some of these concepts that we've just learned during last experiential. - All right, so Will, you wanna introduce the experiential, and then I will set up the poll for everyone to select? - Well, yes, but just before that, I like to remind people that we are talking about trying to connect with kids with disabilities, and the main things to try to reach them. So as Meredith say, it helps in so many ways. It can help to promote their wellness, manage stress, alleviate their pain, help them express their feelings. You can probably improve their communication skills, and many other things. So, with that in mind, let's see what does your body need right now? 'Cause that's the pressing question is we're gonna listen to just a bit of both, listen to them both. But now we're gonna have a poll where you're gonna decide, does your body actually need to relax and deescalate? Or did it make you feel like you want to awaken and energize? And I think we're gonna record our answers in the chat. - Oh, we're gonna record on the poll. If you can see the poll on your screen, go ahead and select the dot. How are you feeling right now? Might be the end of your work day, you might be starting your workday. Where are you right now? And what does your body need? All right, 80% have voted. - Ooh. - Still going up. This is a close one. All right, about 10 more seconds. You've got 88% that have answered. All right, let me show you the result. We will select relax and de-escalate. All right, let me, we'll go ahead and we're going to listen to "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," the full version, and Meredith is gonna walk us through this experience. - Yeah, so it's gonna be a little more of a guided listening experience. So something you can maybe think about adapting with your students. So as you first begin to listen, I just want you to breathe. If you feel comfortable closing your eyes, you certainly can, and just see how your body naturally wants to move as they listen, and then I will guide you through during the listening experience. As you begin to internalize this beat. Go ahead and rock side to side. Come back in, arms go up, and out, and arms down again . Breathe in and breathe out. Shoulders. Up and out. Arms are rocking side to side. Come back to center and take one last breath. Breathe in and out. - Thank you, Meredith. Thank you for guiding us through that experience. I am going to start my video here. So I wanna thank our panelists this evening for allowing us to learn with them. And I'm excited for everyone that has joined us what they can apply into their classrooms, perhaps with a co-worker or a family member. So before we get started on the Q&A, there's a couple of things that we would like to explore. First, we listened to some of the feedback that you guys gave us from the additional signing. And so you can see here that this is the data that we collected of what everyone needs. Everyone, let us know what their challenges are and how we can improve our next webinar and so forth to meet your needs and serve you and what you need to support your students with disabilities. So as you can see, many of you said that time, which is always that poll that teachers are trying to get more of and support, funding, pedagogical knowledge. While you're here tonight, you are already improving that so you're doing your part, art content, knowledge, and resources. So we have a couple of answers here for you later with some of these things, but we are going to use what you have told us to help shape and guide the webinar series. So we'll have one in April, May, June, and July, and we hope you can tune in with us and check out the resources that we have available for you. Preservation Hall lessons has, we've been using the rhythm and beat lesson as our guide, and our fabulous Meredith Sharpe has created a an adaptations component to this lesson. So you can actually go to this lesson and she has created different variations that are based on the objectives and the songs from the lesson. So if you're thinking about, well, what resources can I use? This lesson in particular is a really great guide for how to apply that to music that you may be passionate about, but also meeting those objectives and meeting students' needs. And before we do the Q&A, I just like to do one more poll really quickly, just kind of an exit ticket to see how you're feeling about the session to better inform us for future sessions. So same type of concept as when we were picking our song for how we're feeling, there are three questions that we would like you to respond to, and then we'll move into our Q&A. We'll give you about a few minutes to that and I will go ahead and move on to the Q&A slide where you can see how you can find us on social media. And I believe, Mary is putting the links in the chat for you as well for the exact rhythm and beat lesson. But this series will be available on YouTube, and the presentation will be available on the webinar page of the Preservation Hall Foundation website. All right, so let's get started on our Q&A while everyone finishes up with their exit ticket. So please feel free to unmute and ask a question. You can show us your face if you wanna enable your video too or you can add a question in the chat. - [Jim] Hi, my name is Jim from Lowell, Massachusetts. A question for Will. - [Will] Yes. - [Jim] Are you a special ed teacher? - [Will] I am. - [Jim] Have you used music with students? - [Will] I've used regularly. - [Jim] So you use some of these techniques that we've been talking about tonight? - [Will] Mostly all of them. Honestly, I've had better success with slower tempos, like maybe 60 to 70 beats per minute, is about where my kids responded better. Sometimes, they would get a bit out of control when the tempo was too fast. They'd be jumping all over the place. But yeah, yes, I use them regularly. - [Jim] Okay, thank you. - Hey, had a question. I am wondering, for those of us working with groups who are in the age range that have a hard time getting involved, ways to create that engagement. They seem very timid, laughing, trying to figure out what's going on whether they can really let those walls down, ages 9 to 14, so kind of that middle stage where you're really starting to figure out who you are, what you are, what you like, what you don't like, and it's a scary and intimidating time. So definitely, and I'm a social work intern. So finding techniques to really get them to engage would be super helpful. - Yeah, Will. - One suggestion I would have for you is to find a song they really like. I can think of one reason, "Happy." ♪ 'Cause I'm happy ♪ All the kids knew that song. It may be a bit easier to get them to relate to it if you get a song that they're really already familiar with. - Yes, I would echo that, and I have found that when that is the case, listening experiences, I will start with those first because it's a little less threatening, they don't have to do anything quite yet, and having them even select some of the music, and that might give you some further ideas too if, once you learn as WIll said, what's some of their favorite songs, it's gonna give you a glimpse into who they are a little bit more and even incorporating, I'm thinking other things while listening to one of the songs. Do they want to maybe draw or other art forms, paint or that type of thing too? And in that way, it gets them slowly engaging, whereas then as you go on lessons, can we increment, that moves around the room kind of thing that they don't all have an issue, and you go one, and then if they say no, respecting the no, like that's okay. Sometimes we all need to say no, right? Those are some things I found helpful. - It's a program that's already been established. And so it's the social work design is a new element. So everybody is adjusting. So I think I really like the idea of starting with just listening exercises, and that's something that they can definitely all do. Thank you. - Sure, and I think just validating that too, if everyone's in that same boat, right, this is new, this is anything that you do that's new is a little anxiety provoking for all of us. And so I think validating that and echoing, yeah, we all feel that way sometimes. - Thank you, guys. - [Meredith] Thank you. - I have a question for Will. So are you a special ed teacher where you are with the children for the whole day? Or do you see them for shorter sessions? - No, right now, I'm teaching an autistic class with five kids. - Okay, so you have them the whole day. - [Will] Yes. - Do you have examples of how it works in practice where the student would be at a music therapy session, and then integrate into the classroom? - We sort of, mostly, I've incorporated it in the mornings, sometimes in the evenings, but it's so hectic when the bus time's dizzy. But usually, we will do it right after announcements in the morning. And I'll give them a chance to get rid of any inhibitions, any over-aggressive kind of reactions that they have in their bodies. You give them a chance to calm down. It actually seems to calm them once the exercise is over. And it doesn't last very long. We may do this kind of activity for five minutes or so for no more than about 5, 10 minutes at the most. And then we calm down, then I give them a breathing period between. When we stopped the music activity, I let them sit and just relax for a bit. You can drink water and calm themselves before we begin. - [Participant] Thank you, that's a good example. Thank you. - How soon do the signs of sensory modulation disorder appear? Maybe in a baby or young child? - That's a great question. Honestly, I don't wanna tell you the wrong information. So I'm gonna look that up for you, and really get a clear answer for you. And then we are gonna follow up with an email following this webinar. I believe that's correct, JoDee, right? Yeah, I think you're on mute, JoDee, but I'm gonna write that down so I can look that up for you. - Okay, thank you. - I've got that question down, and in our follow up email, we will answer any questions that we are unable to answer at the moment. - Thank you. - Welcome, thank you for asking. - I had a question as well. So I'm actually a music education major at the moment and I'm getting my minor in special education. And then as well, I have a child on the autism spectrum. But I was just wondering what you guys would, I guess, recommend to focus on the most. As a student now, what are some of the areas, both special education side or music education side? - What do you mean exactly by areas? Can you clarify that just a little bit more? - Yeah, so maybe what are some of the things that you use the most as far as either concepts or skills that you use the most in the real world type setting versus sometimes when you're in the like, learning setting, it's a little different than when you actually get into working with special needs children? - Yeah, Will, did you wanna start? - Well, I think, what one of the benefits or one of the ways that I began doing it was by singing songs with them. We started by singing little simple songs together. And from there, we actually started with, the thing that gave me the first idea that I can incorporate this was "Happy Birthday." Because in my little class, when there's a birthday, we make a really huge deal of it. And I found that they all seem to be able to enjoy singing happy birthday together. And I realized there was a benefit from that, and from there, I started to delve into other little songs that they knew. And that's how I began to do it. And just also listening to music with your kids and playing instruments with them, we'd have drum circle, where it was much less orderly, where it was just us beating, no necessarily scripted way to play. And that was my origins of incorporating music into my special ed class. So I'm not sure if that helps you but that's how I began. And now it hasn't evolved that much. It's only evolved in the fact that the rhythms and the songs have gotten more complicated. And so yeah, that's sort of how it began just very simply. - Yeah. - I don't know if that helped or not. - Yeah, that's actually very helpful, so thank you. - I would say, too, building on that. As Will said, when you're sitting down and playing instruments, you're building relationship, you're working on those social skills, and just that relation, which is so important for everyone for every task for every skill. And I would say things that create awareness. Are they aware of their body? Are they aware of their own voice and expression? Engaging in those types of things to supporting that self-expression, that piece as well. - [Participant] I have a question. I teach music at a K-5 public school, and it's a school just for students with special needs. So it's students with behavior issues and multiple disabilities. So it's a wide range of population and disabilities. So we have students who have lots of different sensory needs within the same class. How would you, because I love these ideas for smaller groups, but when I have a class, and my classes are under 10 with para-educator support, but how would you suggest working this in when I have students with different sensory needs within the same class? Is there any way to to do that? - Do they all do AP at the same time? - [Participant] I'm sorry? - [Will] Do they do adaptive phys ed? - [Participant] Yes. - Do they all go? - [Participant] Yeah, the whole school is special ed. So they all they all go to each special? - Well, I was thinking because that was a personal thing that I went through was that three of my kids would go off to AP while the other three would be with me. And so we actually were able to make a smaller group, just naturally within the day schedule. - [Participant] Yeah, each class goes and it's a two-grade span with each class. So it's a mixture of sensory needs. So just do you have any tips or advice? - It's tough, I feel you. I definitely had groups like that, it's hard. And I don't know if there's one right answer, but some things that I've tried is, I think, for those students who are overstimulated that over-responsiveness, I look at them first because they're those kiddos who are maybe more prone to a tantrum or a meltdown, which is going to affect the whole environment of the class. So I will look at them first and say, "Okay, what do they need because the whole group is going to be affected by that." And, and I think, I have found with some of my groups, any way I can incorporate body movement and rhythm seems to be beneficial for everyone no matter where they are. I think the more we can help students internalize that sense of rhythm is so important 'cause it's gonna get everybody centered. And then I think, from there within, say, an exercise, you can maybe address each student based on where they are. If one student is sitting down and the other one is jumping up and down, I might, within a song, play those adjustments and modulate. I might stand up with my guitar and jump with that student a little bit, then I might move to the student who's sitting and maybe more sluggish, and go over and allow them to strum the guitar if that, that type of thing. And maybe overall, like thinking about the lighting, dimming the lights just to set that environment, again, for those over-responsive students, I think, in general, can help everyone. And maybe thinking about, okay, certain instruments for each student. This student is gonna really. This student who loves to play loud might bother the other students sitting next to him because he's sensitive to loud sounds. It's tricky, so they have, if you think about, I actually have these mallets that are actually called, like not-so-loud mallets and they're large. And the idea is a child can play them with a lot of force, but they don't make as loud of a sound. So I think thinking of some of those things can maybe help too, but it's tough, I hear you. I don't know if any of those help, but- - [Participant] Yes, definitely. And I would pay gold for for those mallets. - They're wonderful. - [Participant] Thank you. - And you know- - I wanted to just add on to that, in that rhythm and beat lesson, you do have those variations that are tied with those objectives. So that might plant a seed for some new ideas for you for how to differentiate. And then later on in our series, we do have one of our webinars that's specifically about instruments, and adaptive instruments. And that might help to understand how to differentiate with just those instruments. So hang tight, and we'll hit those. - [Participant] Perfect, thank you. - And just just one other little note is that, all of this, we're seeking to expose kids to music so they can help them express themselves. And sometimes, the opportunity to express yourself, and let that energy be seen and gathered by someone and taken by someone can help a kid calm down. I've actually seen kids that when you allow them to do some things that are pretty active, or if they're like you say jumping around. Sometimes, if you encourage the jumping around a bit, it can sometimes help them realize that they can calm down. Don't always work, and kids with disabilities are so unique. They're so unique. You have to develop a sort of a personal relationship with each kid so you can understand what they want and what they're trying to express. And I think that comes with time as well. - Absolutely, yes, give yourself a lot of grace. It's trial and error. - Yeah. - Thank you so much. - May I ask a question? Actually, I have two, but I'll be happy with the answer for one. I teach both piano private lessons and also choir. How would you address bullying in the group class, because at our school, we promote integration of the special needs kids, but there's a lot of kids making fun and all that. So how would you address that in a group class? - Oh, that's hard. - Yeah, that's a great question. - That's hard. - Yeah, I think- - What I'd do personally is I tried to develop a relationship with all the kids who have behavior issues. At my school, right now, yeah, I'm an artistic teacher, but I'm almost a social worker in the school because many of the kids who have behavioral issues gravitate to me because I'm not their English teacher, I'm not their science teacher. And I gravitate towards them. And so it may benefit you to try to develop a little relationship with a few of the kids who are being mean, who are being really mean to the special need kids, and try to relate to them. And your friendship or your relationship with them can help teach them the benefit of not being that way. - Yeah, that's great. - It's almost parental. You almost have that parental with a lot of them. And the other thing I've realized when working in public schools is that there are a lot of kids that don't have parental influence, So they don't have a moral compass, they don't have people that are guiding and directing their moral way of life. And so that may have to become a part of your job. I mean, not probably not what you signed up for. But it may indeed need to be incorporated with what you do. That kid that's always, and it may not be one, but just for an example, I would give that kid some way to help. I will make him my helper and get him closer to me. Get that kid closer to me and make him my assistant. And then in time, you may find that their attitudes toward other mean kids will change, and they'll be the correct in fact. But it's also individual. You just have to get to know kids and try to reach them the best way you can. - Thank you. - Thank you. All right, everyone, we are going to wrap up. Thank you so much for being here today. If you have any last questions, just jot them down in the chat, and we'll respond in our follow-up email. But just wanna say thank you for being here tonight. First, give yourselves a round of applause because you have been part of our first webinar series, first webinar of our series, and we can't thank you enough for participating with us to help bring more equal opportunities to students with disabilities, but also this is a greater social movement to not just teach ourselves and our students, but those around us to make our world better. - [Will] Yes. - And so thank you so much to our panelists, Meredith and Will, and thank you, Lara, Laura, and we will see you on the next webinar, webinar two. - Okay, bye. - Thank you, everyone. - Thank you. - Thank you.