My first music therapy session

I opened the door ajar, a three-year-old toddler, quarter of my height, comes rolling to me, like a bowling ball approaching the skittles. He welcomes me with a wide bright smile that could melt a thousand hearts in one second. Before I could assimilate this overdose of affection that one can shower to a stranger, he makes me feel at home by requesting his mother to switch on the AC for cooling me down. This was my very first encounter of my little patient, “J”, who was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

I could not fathom how a kid who is so socially responsible, caring and spontaneous, fall under this spectrum. The toddler blew my mind with his creativity, attention to detail and his quickness in responses. I tried using the mirroring technique and asked him to copy the gestures that I was doing, inorder to assess his sensory awareness. The kid was responding with rapt attention and was communicating with me through non-verbal cues and facial expressions. The communicative functioning was observed to be normal and he showed deep interest in rhythm. The child also pointed towards his favourite instrument which was the drums. I felt I was an ideal match as a therapist as my musical expertise also laid in percussion, involving the rhythm aspect of music.

After assessing his sensory awareness and communicative skills, I then engaged in a musical play through turn taking using the asalatos instrument. He had an innate sense of rhythm and was even started jumping in a specific tempo when asked to jump. This aspect of little J blew my mind as to how the innate musicality is so profound for this kid with ASD. In terms of vocalisation and speech, the kid was able to repeat the word “Orange”, but had difficulty in pronouncing letters like “r” in orange as OWANGE, “l” in Butterfly as BUTTERFY, etc”. I repeatedly used the word orange inorder to enhance his stress on the correct pronunciation of the word. 

Then, once his father and elder brother came home, little became too distracted for the session and kept shifting his focus. I noticed that he was not able to comprehend what I said, and had fluctuating interests with a very low attention span of less than 2 minutes. This had to be addressed through music therapy sessions. After an interactive musical play involving him and his elder brother, I wrapped up the pilot session. I also briefed the parents about the musical and non-musical responses that I had observed with him and had a discussion on how to carry out the Music Therapy (MT) sessions and the frequency of sessions. 

On the whole, the Music therapy session with J was one-of-a kind experience and I have never felt so energised and moved after a session. This was truly transformative and made me believe more in myself and the work that I do. I felt like my life has a purpose and I am passionate in what I do. This thought lingered as I drove back home with a smile on my face, amidst the heavy traffic that I was stuck in. I was looking forward for the next MT session with this champ and I could not wait to help him in any way possible.