Week 3: Nordoff-Robbins

Hi everyone! This week has been more eventful than most. I was able to meet with Ms .Fort to discuss future plans for my senior project. Ms. Fort was able to assist me with creating a survey that I will send to other music therapists through Ms. Fort’s network that she has in NYC. The purpose of the survey is to gather information on the accessibility of services offered in the area of Brooklyn for families with school age kids with autism, and the benefit of music therapy on this specific group. This survey will play a major role in helping me collect data for my research. Also, in our meeting we briefly discussed about therapeutic methods that have been used in the past in music therapy settings. One popular teaching method Ms. Fort mention during our conversation is the Nordoff-Robbins approach. The Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy is “based on the belief that everyone processes a sensitivity to music that can be utilized for personal growth development” according to NYU Steinhardt. Ms. Fort sent me some informative videos on what exactly the Nordoff-Robbins method pertains to when teaching students that have ASD. 

Specifically, there was a video that explained the effectiveness of the Nordoff-Robbins method through showing the viewer what it is like to teach a client one-on-one in a music therapy setting. What I saw that I found intriguing is that music and singing helped clients work on their motor skills and communication skills. In the video, there was a mother of the child, “Joshua”, who said that it is because of this Nordoff-Robbins program that helped Joshua live in a “world with other people” instead of in “his own world.” Like I stated beforehand in last weeks research that children with ASD have an affinity towards music, this completely applied to Joshua’s case as he started to excel in playing the piano. This video was very informative and helpful for me to understand my research better through seeing what goes on in music therapy sessions when using the Nordoff-Robbins approach.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB_s0PB2nQs