The 4 Steps in Tuneville - Harnessing the Urge for Completion

Rituals, routines, sameness. These are terms that are familiar in the autism community. Human nature likes routines and patterns but with autism, the desire is greatly magnified. Manifested by lining up trains and other toys, insistence on detailed routines before bedtime, and meltdowns when an article of furniture is moved even slightly, these precious kids are extremely uncomfortable with change. Tuneville uses this desire for sameness in our 4 track program.

Track A: a learning song is presented in its entirety. All lessons are sung using two voices. The first voice prompts, the second voice responds. The child has fun and learns the song in both voices  (♪first voice:"the cat says...", second voice: "...meow"♪).

Track B: the song is repeated with key omissions. The second voice is dropped and the need for sameness compels the child to become the second voice (♪ first voice: "the cat says..." second voice: “.....”♪). This step has been instrumental in drawing first verbal, non echoic,  responses from persons with autism as old as 21 years. 

Track C: the song topic is spoken. The child has already responded during the music, but needs to transition to speaking. Tuneville also uses slightly different wording for this prompt. More on this when we cover Generalization (first voice: “What does the cat say?” second voice: “Meow.”).

Track D: the song topic is spoken with key omissions. Since the verbal exchange has already been modeled and mimicked with the sung tracks, the learner understands his or her role of becoming the second voice (first voice: “What does the cat say?” second voice: “....”).

Imagine the great effort given to manipulate the environment in order to maintain things as they were first observed and routines as they were first learned. Now imagine that same effort used to vocalize meaningful language. That is what lies at the core of Tuneville: harnessing an overwhelming urge for completion.

A Little Tuneville History

Around 2002, Arlyn’s son Willson was newly diagnosed with autism. She and her husband Will began pouring the emotion of being hit with this strange diagnosis into understanding the cause and treatment. Looking back, they are grateful to many friends and professionals who urged them to begin ABA treatment as soon as possible.

The Kantz family program involved an ABA practitioner coming to their home for treatment sessions three days per week. Because their budget would not allow the full five days of therapy as recommended, they decided to video their son's sessions in order to equip themselves with as many skills as they could glean.* Early in his therapy, as they were watching a video of their son struggling to grasp language, Arlyn exclaimed, "But he can sing all the Veggie Tale songs!"  That day she picked up our old guitar and beat out the first song to teach Willson to respond to social questions .i.e. “What is your name?, How old are you?”, etc.

The Kantzs sang "Social Questions" in call/response style on the only recording equipment readily available - a Mr. Microphone. That weekend they took a  3 hour trip and played the song there and back. Upon their return, Willson resumed therapy and, at the end of his session, the therapist came out wide-eyed asking, "Willson can answer all the social questions, what happened?" At this point the Kantzs realized that they were doing something special and began to convert, with the help of Willson’s teacher Erica, all upcoming treatment drills into songs.

The Tuneville Team is now excited to share the philosophy and background of Tuneville with all their new partners. The next entry will explain the 4 steps implemented in the Tuneville songs which capture the autistic "urge for sameness" and maximize learning. 

We know you will have the same success with interactive music that we have.

* One of these early sessions is available for view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2biWBiiTg1E