Wordless Wednesday: jammin'.

wordless wednesday: a star is born

Wordless Wednesday: music therapy

 

31 for 21, Day 24: the light of my life

Yeah, I'm tired, it's been a long day. I wanted to write about the fund-raising I'm doing in honor of Maya...But I'm ready to crash. So here's the link and a photo I took of Maya last week at music therapy. Even though it was taken with my phone I love the lighting.  She is the light of my life is all I can think of when I see this photo.

http://www.firstgiving.com/dreammaya

31 for 21, Day 2: don't stop the music!

Friday night we went to a fundraising event.  It was a family friendly 24 hour concert to raise money to support music therapy services through Higher Octave Healing.  HOH works with ASU to provide music therapy to children and teens with developmental disabilities.  Maya gets her music therapy through HOH and we are very pleased with the work they do.  Unfortuntely the state has cut salaries for MTs that work with our kiddos.  So you can imagine many people in this field are struggling or leaving this line of work.  We went on Friday to lend our support to the therapist and students that will become therapist. 

What was so great about this whole experience was how much Maya enjoyed the music that evening.  We stayed for a few sets, different people sang and played their instruments, ranging from a tuba, piano, guitar and a full on rock and roll band.  Maya sat the majority of the time watching and being very attentive.  She clapped at the end of every song.  It was a wonderful evening and even though we were out later than we usually are with Maya, I think it was worth it.  It makes me so happy to be able to expose her to all types of music and experiences.

Here a few photos of Maya with her music therapist.   I really do believe that music taps into a side of her brain that no other therapy does.   As we all have felt on one level or another music opens up our mind and heart and can motivate us to do so much more than we believe we can.

striking a pose

working with the bells

moving and grooving

playing the xylophone

cellist, Katharina Reichelt

thanks conny wenk for posting this video via you tube. check out, 18-year-old cellist, Katharina Reichelt. so beautiful and inspiring!

31 for 21, Day 10: music play

a couple of days ago our little family went to a music playgroup. maya loves music and i'm always trying to look for new venues to get her involved in. we have taken some music courses through the community centers and i have seen really amazed by the results. i'd really like to learn more about how music therapy can help maya. research has shown that music therapy helps with concentration and alert thinking among other things. i can totally see this with maya. her attention span is a hundred times better when music is playing.

during our little music session i noticed that as soon as the guitar came out she went over to play it. when we took the other music class before, she didn't have much interest in playing the guitar so to see that really put a smile on my face. even more so i saw her go from an observer to a participant in one hour. at first she was watching everyone very seriously, and after a few songs she started to clap and dance. she was right there

when they took out the shakers and she didn't throw them around like she using does. she was shaking them to the music. it was really awesome to watch.