What to Expect in a Music Therapy Session

Just how no two children are alike, music therapy sessions vary from client to client. What goes on inside a session depends greatly on your child’s/client’s needs and preferences. A typical session will include a hello song to indicate the start of the session, music interventions to work on social/emotional, perceptual/motor, language/communication, preacademic, and musical … Read more

New Studio Grand Opening

On Sunday, March 1st, Play Your Part, Inc.’s new studio opened with a bang! Over 60 people joined us in celebrating our new studio space in Mission Viejo. Check out our Facebook post for a glimpse into all the fun! Kids enjoyed checking out the new waiting room, bathroom and clinic space. Arts and crafts … Read more

Reflect(ions)

Today was my last day of teaching at OCSA for the semester. Parts of me were happy, parts of me were sad, but when the students led a few interventions for their final project…part of me felt anxious. Why…? I’m not sure…but as I reflect on my first semester (ever!) of teaching high schoolers, I … Read more

Majoring in Music (dot) Com

I recently came across this great website. Great concept. Great articles. Why hadn’t I heard of it before? Check out MajoringInMusic.Com. And more specifically, check out Music Therapy for Children with Autism. This fall semester, I am teaching an Introduction to Music Therapy course at the Orange County School of the Arts. Most of my students … Read more

Autism Live Interview

Hey there again. This past Wednesday, April 9th, I had the wonderful opportunity to share the benefits of music therapy for those with Autism on the Autism Live show with Shannon and Nancy. They were so welcoming and made me feel very comfortable in my first ‘live’ interview! (excuse me while I scream in excitement!) … Read more

The Magical World of Disney and Autism

I came across this article on good ol’ Facebook. The title caught my eye and I knew I should take the time to read it. It is a brilliant narrative of a family struggling with a son with Autism. It touches on the set backs they face, the hours spent in therapy, the emotional toll it takes on the family as a whole; and yet, it so eloquently portrays the link between the music, the stories, the sidekicks, and the morals of the Walt Disney characters.

Here is a quote from the article:

“When Owen was 3, his comprehension of spoken words collapsed. That’s clear from every test. But now it seems that as he watched each Disney movie again and again, he was collecting and logging sounds and rhythms, multitrack. Speech, of course, has its own subtle musicality; most of us, focusing on the words and their meanings, don’t hear it. But that’s all he heard for years, words as intonation and cadence, their meanings inscrutable. It was like someone memorizing an Akira Kurosawa movie without knowing Japanese. Then it seems he was slowly learning Japanese — or, rather, spoken English — by using the exaggerated facial expressions of the animated characters, the situations they were in, the way they interacted to help define all those mysterious sounds. That’s what we start to assume; after all, that’s the way babies learn to speak. But this is slightly different because of the way he committed these vast swaths of source material, dozens of Disney movies, to memory. These are stored sounds we can now help him contextualize, with jumping, twirling, sweating, joyous expression, as we just managed with “The Jungle Book.””

Leave your thoughts and comments below…

Glass Mountain

This past Saturday I presented about music therapy to the folks at Glass Mountain in Irvine, CA. Ten people were in attendance and I spoke about the field of music therapy, my story of why I became a music therapist, and then we ended with a drum circle. The participants were just lovely, smart, kind, … Read more

Play Your Part Happenings

Here’s what’s happening at Play Your Part this month! We finished up our first series of “Music and Me” groups! We have started two new clients this month (yay!) and currently looking for more students and clients to fill our schedule. Brianna Shaffer was featured in the Winter 2014 Chapman Magazine (picture above). Play Your Part … Read more

Chapman Spotlight

I wanted to thank Chapman University Alumni for posting my interview to their blog. It is wonderful that they are supporting their alumni in this way and I am grateful for the exposure of my new company. Please check it out by clicking the header above.

Brianna