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TACPAC brings the skills of the music therapist and special
educationists to the child with profound multiple disabilities.
Together they provide a series of musical accompaniments to specific
activities in a movement and sensory curriculum. Three half-hour tapes
with three matching laminated cards provide all the information a
parent or teacher would need to set up an early communication through
touch ritual. Wainer, Stormont and Wright show how simple household
utensils can become the tools for beautiful moments of contact.
Their booklet illustrates the care with which you need to gather the
materials and set up an interruption-free and draught-free environment
before embarking on the sensitive process of contacting the child who has
very little power to communicate. The stereo recordings with Dolby
noise reduction invite the 'therapist' to move with appropriate tempos
and rhythms for suggested activities. The first session is for fanning,
slapping with spatulas, flicking with a little mop, squashing with a
scouring pad and then massaging with oil to finish. The others include
stroking with fur fabric, tapping and rolling with chopsticks, sponges,
rollers, brushing, rolling a bag of marbles, drumming with hands,
dragging a chain and feather duster stroking.
These would be ideal for a teacher to give assistants and volunteers to
run their own sessions as they almost guarantee a consistency of
approach. A little training would enable such people to become
observant and responsive to the child's reactions and expressions of
preference. Without this the whole exercise would be entirely passive
and the declared intention to communicate would not arise.
The set is a welcome support to people who like to introduce variations
of musical experiences - these sound like improvisations rather like an
Orff Schulwerk creative music session with orthodox and quirky
combinations. They might even encourage people to have a go at
providing live accompaniment of their own if extra hands are available.
Children would eventually come to associate particular pieces of music
with the activities and sensations and enable them to anticipate
events, especially if they were allowed to hold the materials prior to
each section. There are sensible pauses between each piece and a voice
announces what is going to happen. I can imagine a child coming to have
an appreciation of what happens on which happens on which days if these
were to be repeated weekly on a particular day. A confused multi
sensory impaired child would be helped to settle and recognise what is
going on in what can be an unpredictable world of shifting impressions.
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