by Marilisa Sachteleben

Created on: November 18, 2009

When I think of music and art therapy, I think of a boy named Joe. I'm transported back about 27 years ago to an inner city school where I did my practicum with emotionally impaired and autistic students. Housed on the top floor of a post World War One era school building, the centralized program teachers worked with the most severely emotionally impaired students from neighboring school districts. Autism was an unfamiliar condition back then, and frankly autistic behavior looked a little scary. Head banging, rocking, self-stimulation, no eye contact, eerie high-pitched unprovoked shrieks, sing-song echolalia. Little souls hiding in some dark recess of the mind, completely shutting out the world. The students' school day was tightly regimented. We dutifully trooped off to OT, PT, art therapy, music therapy, speech and other therapeutic activities. We were using a strict behavior modification approach with treat trays for appropriate targeted behaviors. But the teachers were not without compassion or tenderness. I'm not sure that in my nearly 25 year teaching life, I've seen a more devoted or caring group of educators.

So back to Joe. Whenever I think of music therapy, I remember gangly, profoundly autistic Joe. With his vacant eyes, unkempt blond hair, painfully skinny legs and jeans that didn't fit properly. I understood that home was not a happy place for Joe. Home was a combination of ignorance, poverty, alcohol and parents who themselves probably would have qualified for special services as children had special services been available. An autistic child is difficult for a healthy parent to understand and interact with. For a disadvantaged parent with no coping skills in her toolbox, it's virtually impossible.

Joe studiously kept out all contact from the outside. His echolalia had advanced to complete repetition. Most of the time, he kept his eyes shut and frequently covered his ears. He wanted no stimuli to enter. Except for music therapy. When we all sat in a circle on the faded carpet in Miss Joan's room, Joe came to life, if just in little epiphanies. Music therapy is essentially music and dance that is designed to draw students out and bridge some emotional gaps. Music therapy uses song and verse to help children explore emotions and responses. The song and dance encourages community and expression of feeling.

There was a particular song that seemed to light Joe's sad little life most of all, and it was called 'Will You Dance for Us?' It was sung to the tune, 'The More We Get Together, the Happier We Feel'. Around the circle each child was asked, in song to go into the center of the circle and 'dance for us'. The verse ended by thanking the child for dancing and asking him to sit down. Simple stuff. But to Joe it might have been American Idol or Dancing with the Stars. That leggy, uncoordinated child got up and industriously danced a strange, endearing little dance, while we sang and clapped. He didn't look at us, but he didn't close his eyes. And sometimes, he almost smiled.

It probably doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of life. After almost thirty years, the defeatist in me thinks that Joe is probably staring at a wall in some adult foster care home. But back in that rundown school building, Joe danced; for him, music therapy meant to world.

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