Ben’s Story
In this State special school setting, Ben had been attending Music Therapy for a few months. Ben was always incredibly enthusiastic to be in Music Therapy and his excitement for sessions to begin was quite apparent by his immediate vocalisations, change of posture, increase of hand movements and overall demeanor.
Ben is living with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD). His reason for referral was to develop communication and relationships with peers. It had been observed that Ben was usually on the periphery in the classroom, and while he is very aware of his environment, the objective with Music Therapy was to increase his engagement with activities that would be reinforced in his classroom setting.
Here at Vibe we are always interested in using new technology that can support the aims and outcome measures that we set as Music Therapists. A product called the ‘Hammer Jammer’ was introduced which created a unique sound for a guitar, designed for use in film soundtrack composition. We realised quite quickly that it could have a simpler application to assist people with physical disabilities, to be able to play the guitar with ease. The clip shows where the device is acting as a bridge to increasing engagement which is exactly the aim that we was looking for with Ben.