Proceedings, Oxford, UK (2002) - World Federation of Music Therapy

I would like to close the Morning Greeting Routine study by quoting the
lead teacher: “Transitions into the classroom were stressful for the
children, parents and teachers. The ‘Hello Songs’ allowed us to
implement a simple intervention each day. The songs are great and
helped all of us tremendously.”
Multiple Step Tasks Study
Another example of how songs benefited a child with autism is evident in
the Multiple Step Tasks Study. The childcare day has many transitions
and involves managing daily routines. These routines require that a
sequence of different steps be followed. For one child with autism
establishing complex routines like hand washing or clean up was
troublesome. In her book “Autism: An Inside-Out Approach” Donna
Williams (diagnosed with autism in her adulthood) describes how she
used familiar songs to memorize complex routines by including each step
of the routine in the lyrics. She states: “ If the person comes to sing
known tunes, verbally, or mentally, songs can be a good way to carry
along a sort of ‘map’ by which to trigger the sequence of steps involved
in doing something” (Williams, 1999, p. 299).
We developed lyrics to ease the steps of hand washing and used a pre-
composed song for cleaning-up.
Participant
Andy, a 3-year-old European-American boy, diagnosed with autism was
also enrolled in the FPG Child Development program. Andy was an
adorable boy with a lot of great skills. However, his communication was
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