Takeaways from Concurrent Session: “Extra! Extra! Read All About It!”

Written by: Molli Smith, MT Intern

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend my second SER-AMTA Conference - this time in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was a great time to catch up with friends and professors, and to meet some new faces. I enjoyed going to the concurrent sessions, especially due to the wide range of topics. One of my favorite sessions was about how to incorporate children’s literature in music therapy, presented by Kirby Carruth, MMT, LPMT, MT-BC, Rachel Coon-Arnott, MMT, LPMT, MT-BC, and Amber Weldon-Stephens, EdS, LPMT, MT-BC. The majority of this presentation consisted of hands-on intervention examples that we could implement in our own practice, which was a fun way to end a long day of concurrent sessions. I really enjoyed learning about different ways to make children’s books more interactive, and wanted to share some of my takeaways. 

Why choose singable books when working with children? 

• It allows them to hear the natural rhythm of spoken language, which will help further speech development 
• It instantly engages the brain - both hemispheres are working simultaneously 
• Level of focused attention increases when they are actively participating in the telling of the story 
• Promotes listening and reading skills 

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Ways to make the books interactive:

• Incorporating props such as puppets, visuals, or a physical object from the story
• Movement - teaching simple actions to do on different words/parts of the story 
• Instruments - Have them play during a recurring line of the book, bring in different instruments to represent specific sounds or objects
• Use background music to add another sensory element (for example, playing rain sounds for a book about a rainy day) 

An example of a specific application that they included in the concurrent session was with the book Pete The Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin. Materials needed for this include: book or powerpoint of book pages, visuals of school settings, guitar, and tambourines. Begin the book by singing the chorus “I’m rocking in my school shoes,” using a blues progression and upbeat strumming pattern. Have the students play their tambourines during the recurring chorus line, and place them in their lap or on the floor for other parts of the book. When Pete moves to a different space within the school (such as library, cafeteria, playground, etc.), give students the opportunity to match the correct visual with the location from a field of choices. 

Here is a link to an online resource where you can virtually borrow books for free.

What is your favorite book you have incorporated in music therapy sessions?

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