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Mahalo mucho, Steve B - what an excellent programme! And will look for
someone with such experiential experience. Mine has been as 'therapee'
rather than 'therapist'
- Steve Hill
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From: Steve Ball [mailto:jazzexplorium_
Sent: 06 February 2008 22:41
To: Steve Hill; 'Beverly Nadelman'; drumcircles@
edcf@yahoogroups.
'Eldermusic@
Subject: RE: [DrumCircles] Involving the residents - reply long
...hi Steve H
...thanks for your thanks i think - just wanted to say that my two pen'rth
was sent off list so as not influence the replies
you received, as i'm still trying to deal with a similar situation - one
thing I can impart here is that when i was invited to my
relevant institution, after a similar incedent which resulted in me being
asked to do a training session with staff, i was determined to
make the training absolutly relevant to the situation - so i used a 'roll
play' exercise devised by myself and based on an
experience of staff/carers/
rhythmic activity session, the experiece was this...
...I had been booked to do 4 one hour drum circle / rhythmic activty
sessions as part of a Transition Day / Conference put on by
my local authority social services department - transition from child
services to adult services for young adults with learning difficulties
- my role basically was to entertain / facilitate an activity for 4 visiting
special needs schools whose attending clients were making this
transition - the four schools were very specific in the needs they catered
for -
1: a mainstream school with a bias toward vocational type activities rather
than accademic training who brought a group of teenagers
with moderate learning difficulties and some AD(H)D with teachers and
teaching assistants..
2: a school with more defined needs mostly catering for youngsters with
autism and cerebral palsey and almost 1 for 1 carers...
3: a school that dealt with sensory imapirment - hearing problems / sight
problems and thier staff and assistants
4: a school that specialised in a learning difiiculty with a sensory
impairment which cuminates in a 'complex need' and again 1 to 1 carers...
...i knew who were coming and when -appropriate sessions were planned and
the first three went to plan and i learnt as much from the
session as i feel i gave to the clients...the problems all arose in the
final session...
...i had my space set up - not as a circle but as a quarter circle facing
into one corner of the room - there were other activities happening
in the other corners of the room and to me this felt appropriate to focus
attention into what we doing / less ditraction from stuff going on
elsewhere, there was plaenty of space left for wheelchairs and i had seeting
for around 40 participants.
...the group arrived with carers who prompt;y wheeled thier cleint or led
them to seats - a bit of adjusting as to who went where and then
my first bit of contention the carers ignored me and turned on mass to walk
off -cigarettes coming out of pockets and geading for the door
they thought they were now on a break-! ...i looked for the person in charge
an made my concern known as with this group [school 4] the
need for the carers to be involved was paramount -the person in charge of
that group happened to be the deputy head of the school - it
seems that there was some confusion and the school didn't know the session
was hands on so the carers staff wer brought back and the
session began - i introduced instruments by sound and distributed them and
we had some rumbles and loud / soft - see/saw etc...now i
have as part of my kit some instruments that have velcro fastenings etc some
with stands -the usual equipment for special needs, as well
as some stick drums, also sound shapes etc... and as the session went on i
looked around too see who might find those instruments easier
to use and made the carers aware of them - i then saw one particular
participant in a wheelchair had 3 different people trying to fasten
the velcro bells and shakers to all of his limbs and the man was flinching
and obviously distressed - i stepped in and asked that they didn't
do that and maybe joined in the sesion for themselves -and then the client
might want to join in too...i found out afterwards that there was
the carer and two family members involved with this client in this
incedent...
...this was the school that contacted me after this event and asked me to go
and do some awareness / music training with their staff and
and carers - we had some rhythm games and i answered questions about the
instruments but the maini learning activity went loike this...
...I split the group of 20 staff into 5 groups of 4 and gave a piece of
paper to each with their secret designation writen on it - those
desigmations were as follows...
1) client - react to whatever happens as yourself
2) carer - you have some instrments and your client HAS to experience them
all
3) exuberent parent - you really care for your child and you want them to
experience everything - make sure that they try all the instruments
4) care staff manager - you really want make sure that the two people
helping the client do a good job so encourage them as much as you can
...each group had a box of percussion instruments and a hand drum - and the
exercise ran for 8 mins...and then we had a group dicussion...
the people who benefited most of all were those who had the experience of
being the client and when asked to reflected / feedback to the
group gave answeres like "i found i didn't want to do what they wanted" "i
felt overwhelemed" etc etc ...those with the frustration of being
a carer asked to do a task they new nothing about technically said they felt
awakaward and unsure and the task bvecame about quantity
rather than quality...similar things were said by the other two desiganted
players in each group....
...I then did a second roll play - a pairs exercise - person 1 think of a
client that you work with and exhibit their behaviour / person 2 work with
your pair and engage them with the instruments - around 6 minutes each and
then change over and repeat the exercise...end of session
- the resulting feedback sheets told me that the exercise had mostly been a
success - only two people said that they didn't feel it had
been relevant to their work...
...I wouldn't have tried this unless i had had some training in devising and
executing such exercises and if anyone is tempted i would say
find someone to work with who does have experiential training experience..
Steve B
Steve Ball
http://www.jazzexpl
tel: 07787 375 292
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