The Silly Elf (activity)

Anytime I can use a general theme for a session or activity, I do.  Developing a theme always seems to pull things together as well as faciliates increased attention and interest.  Simply put ... themes are fun!

Holidays provide perfect opportunities for themed concepts and activities.  Below is a little poem/rhyme that I came up with a couple years ago for use in sessions.  Due to it's simplicity, it's fairly easy to implement outside of session so I'm posting it here :) 

I typically use this activity for these goal areas:

• Facilitate/Improve auditory attention
• Increase Impulse control
• Decrease auditory response time
• Increase cognitive skill (color identification, sequence commands/events, reading/story comprehension, etc)
• Increase visual attention

If working on pre-reading skills, you may want to print this story  (focusing on 1 sentence at a time if necessary) rather than just reading it yourself.

MATERIALS NEEDED:
-  "Silly Elf" story
-  Pictures (street, elf, feet, tic tac toe, Nintendo, smiling)
-  Colored items (bells, instruments, scarves)
-  A drum (or like item)
-  "The End!" paper (for on top of drum)

DIRECTIONS for activity:

1. Set up items in semi circle or table around child/client.  Introduce each item.  If appropriate, present child/client with a "pointer" (this can be a special wand, drum stick/mallet, etc) for child to point to items as they are named in the story. 
2. Explain that the child/client will get to touch and point to each item/picture in the story, but he/she has to wait until they hear that word first. (see above for picture sheet you can print)
3. Practice saying the word of an item, and having child/client point to the item. 
4. Have the child practice "playing" a color item (i.e., when you say "red", the child will play the instrument/item associated with that color.  NOTE:  For the colors, I typically have colored bells that the child gets to play when he/she hears the color name.  This makes this more interactive, and provides the opportunity to change from different types of cues within the activity (pointing to some items, playing other items).  IN PLACE OF COLORED BELLS, you may want to gather instruments or items that can be used as instruments (or items that make funny sounds).  Have a solid colored scarf or paper next to/under each of the noise/instrument items (i.e., have one item placed on a green scarf or piece of paper, and when when child/client here's "green" said in the activity, he/she will play the that item).
5. OPTIONAL:  Have a drum (or like item) with paper on it ("THE END!").  Child/client has to wait until the very end when he/she hears you say, "The End!", to play the drum.  This is lots of fun - a great opportunity for impulse control, and it really creates increased auditory attentoin and anticipation ;) 

The Silly Elf

One day as I was walking down the street
I came upon a jolly elf with red shoes upon his feet.
He smiled at me and said, “Orange you going to play with me?”
It was a glorious, sunny day,
a sky decked in yellow.
I decided I'd play with my new red footed friend -
He was quite a nice fellow.

We played a game of tic tac toe,
and then a game of Nintendo.
Jumping jacks, and sliding down green hills -
Oh what a thrill!
Hide and seek, and purple cookies to eat.
A long day of fun we've had,
I said goodbye to my new red footed friend.
Smiling and waving, I said,
“The End!”

A-10-chun!

A-10-chun!

Below is a little exercise that is helpful in establishing or regaining attention/mental clarity.  I've used this as a 'take home activity' for clients who have difficulty with attention (often paired with decreased impulse control and increased energy levels).  I also used to implement this with my own son when I needed to call him and get him focused.  Actually, this exercise became somewhat of a 'out to eat' tradition when my son was in first grade.  Whenever we would go out to eat, he seemed to need something to calm him down while we were waiting for our meals.

Activity:
1) Present a word equation similar to this:


five balls eight lights


2) Then, have your child put this phrase in order according to numbers first, then items (and in the order they were named):


five eight balls lights

*** BE sure to demonstrate this a few times first.

IMPORTANT TIPS:

• This exercise can be implemented with or without paper (writing it down).  This would depend upon your child's ability/development (i.e., you may find your child would do better writing these down at least initially).  This is meant to be challenging, but not to cause frustration or feelings of "I can't do it".  Either way, you may find it helpful to write the first few exercises down until everyone gets the hang of it.
• Present this as a 'game' for the family (not just the one child) rather than a 'task'.  Take turns going around the table ... make sure Mom, Dad, Grandmamma, Granddaddy (whomever is at the table) have turns, too.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS: 
(be sure to only move onto these after mastery of the above)

• Add to the equations as they are mastered (i.e. - seven car fourteen wall one teacup)
• Establish a theme for each equation (i.e. - "automotives", "foods", "sports")

This is a great (and very simple) tool that lends itself well to 'on the fly'.  You can implement this in many situations/environments, and it doesn't require props/etc.

Jessica

Music and Attention

I wanted to dedicate today's blog to a recent journal article that I read in the Journal of Music Therapy (spring 2009 edition, Vol. XLVI No.1). This article is entitled The Use of Music with Young Children to Improve Sustained Attention during a Vigilance Task in the Presence of Auditory Distractions. It is co-written by Laura K. Noguchi, MA, MT-BC and David E. Wolfe, PhD.

The irony is that as I am writing this blog, I have been sitting in a coffee shop getting some work done on my laptop. I am a bit under the weather today which has caused me to feel very fatigued and somewhat easily distracted with trouble concentrating on the tasks before me. All the extraneous noises you would find in a coffee shop (blenders, microwaves, talking, music) are especially distracting to me today. It is these moments when I pull out my headphones, and allow my music to drown out the noises. I am then able to concentrate more on what I am doing. Also, I have found that there are certain types of music that are distracting to me. I have created a play list entitled "laptop work" which contains songs that are conducive to my own concentration. I find that songs that have a certain deep and personal meaning to me can be distracting. I also find that songs with lots of changes (chord changes, tempo changes, etc) can be distracting to me as well.

So, my own coffee shop experience at this moment serves as an example to me of what this article is trying to relay.

I intend to cover this article in greater detail in the upcoming October 2009 MT Newsletter, but for now I just want to touch on some points.

What is attention?

"Attention, by definition, is a cognitive process that relates to immediate, at the moment, experience of an individual; a state of current and selective awareness. It is an act of directing the mind to objects or events that necessitate careful observing or listening." (Pashler, 1997)

This article mentions that since music is "an auditory medium consisting of an organized sequence of continuous, on-going sounds (and silence), most reference to the term attention/attentiveness will require listening, i.e., attending, to sounds across time".

In reference to a series of studies by Madsen and his colleagues, Madsen & Geringer (2000-2001) state that "many people enjoy listening to music, but their attention to music wanes appreciably after the initial stimulus ...". Actual concentration on music begins to decrease, and the music takes on the role of " 'background' in their cortical attentiveness" (pp..104-105), and "in order to increase vigilance, the listener needs to be directed to attend to specific events within the music and to actively respond to those events." (Wolfe and Noguchi, 2009).

In this article, Wolfe and Noguchi conduct a study consisting of kindergarten students ( N=76, more details in upcoming mention in Oct 09 MT Newsletter). These students were randomly assigned to one of four groups/conditions:

1) spoken story with no distraction (SND; n =21)

2) spoken story with distraction (SD; n =18)

3) musical story with no distraction (MND; n = 17)

4) musical story with distraction (MD; n = 20)

Significant results were found. What are your assumptions (or hypothesis, if you will)? What do you think results indicated, and more importantly, why?

As mentioned, I will follow up with more details as well as findings in the upcoming October 2009 MT Newsletter.

Oh how thankful I am for my "laptop play list"! What a tool music can be when utilized and implemented effectively ... even when it is something as simple as "background music".

Jessica

Madsen, C.K., & Geringer, J.M. (2000-2001). Meaningful listening and focus of attention. A model. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 147, 103-108.

Pashler, J.E. (1997). The psychology of attention. Cambridege, MAS: MIT Press.

Wolfe, D.E., & Noguchi, L.K. (2009). The Use of Music with Young Children to Improve Sustained Attention during a Vigilance Task in the Presence of Auditory Distractions. Journal of Music Therapy, XLVI (1), 2009, 2-14.