We are looking forward to the TMEA convention and the  BAMT conference this month, catching up with old friends and introducing Skoog to therapists from all over the UK and further afield! With that in mind I thought I would pull together some of the feedback we have had from music therapists and share it with you here.

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Sandy Matheson is a therapist working with Nordoff Robbins Scotland. Sandy shares his experience using Skoog with an Autistic client.

Tom is a gentle, dreamy five-year-old boy, with an unconfirmed diagnosis of ASD/LD. He is not verbal, but occasionally vocalises. His mum noticed that Tom responds positively to musical stimuli of various kinds, and consequently she referred him for music therapy. I undertook four assessment sessions with Tom in January 2012. It was immediately clear that Tom is a highly tactile child; he explores and investigates his environment by touching and holding objects (and if not discouraged by popping them in his mouth)! For this reason, I decided that the Skoog might be an appropriate instrument to draw him into a musical relationship.

Tom was intrigued by this strange, colourful object, and delighted by the sounds it made. His first response to it was to try to eat it, but It did not take him long to understand the relationship between the action of touching various parts of it and the different sounds that could be achieved.

 

It proved to be one of the instruments on which we could enjoy a creative relationship, turn-taking and playing duets. Mostly, his relationships were with the instruments themselves rather than with the therapist; inasmuch as he involved me, he tended to use me as a means to an end rather than using the instrument as a means of communication. (This is what one would expect to find in the earliest stage of therapy with a client with ASD).

Therefore it was significant that the Skoog drew Tom into a musical relationship. It also held his interest for a relatively long time; Tom’s interactions with instruments tended to be very brief, but our Skoog activity lasted around five minutes. Were I to continue working with Tom, I would continue to use the Skoog as a way of hooking him into a relationship.”

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Skoog is now available across the EU, Australia and the US.

Languages supported here: https://skoogmusic.com/resources/userguide

What is a Skoog? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDGREk0YuSA

You can find a supplier here: https://skoogmusic.com/wheretobuyskoog