Ray My Clinical Reflection

For my clinical paper the client I have chosen was from NHS. My clients name is Ray. He is a child with an intellectual disability and low level of Autism. Ray is normally a very happy child. He works well in a group setting with the other children. He is always willing to participate and cooperate throughout each session. He is very egger to answer any questions I might ask. Throughout the session he is very observant. He follows well in the activities but can get a little out of control and hyper because he’s so excited for music. This paper will reflect on the social functioning of my client. The main focus was to work with him on controlling himself in the group and have him follow directions.
The intervention I have chosen to help Ray
One of the topics would be Rhythm from chapter one of Michael Thaut’s book Rhythm, Music, and The Brain. Thaut described “rhythm as a narrow sense, refers to explicit divisions of time or space into intervallic time systems, re-current and often characterized by periodicity”. Thaut also states, “rhythm also modulates the attention of the listener in relationship to the perception of musical events. Rhythm guides the ear and brain to make a sense of acoustical patterns and shape by directing focus to important moments in the unfolding of music”. For my client rhythm played a big part in his process for learning to control himself and follow directions. Since my intervention consisted of keeping a steady beat on the drum, Ray was able to get a sense of the rhythm and was able to become more focused. Another topic from Thaut’s book was pulse. Pulse was defended as something that helps keep a steady beat. Pulse provided structure to the music without that steady beat Ray would have became more hyper then relaxed. Another topic would be cueing. Since Ray was given the proper cueing he was able to play his instruments along with me.
The study, Utilizing Rhythm-Based Strategies to Enhance Self-Expression and Participation in Students with Emotional Behavioral Issues stated the purpose for the study was to see if rhythm strategies would effect of behaviors of students in schools. The study showed
The study also sates that music therapy is a unique tool to offer to children with disabilities. It gives them the ability to perform with instruments and to learn basic skills. My client Ray an intellectual disability and after reading this study I realized how important music therapy is for him. Music therapy helped to give him a way for expression and a way to control his behaviors in a structured environment. Though Ray has a disability he was still able to reach his goal of following directions and staying calm. If he didn’t have music therapy I feel he would have struggle more on grasping those