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Music Avoidance

Even though most people love music, a very small minority will respond negatively. Sensory sensitivity or overload most likely accounts for this response. While attention needs to be given to special sensory needs, it is important to not allow an individual to attempt to dictate what goes on in the environment at all times. The more tolerance is built, the more there will be an ability to cope with the chaos of real world. Keep in mind music is everywhere!  To overcome aversion to music, give away a little, but not all, control:

1. Prepare an individual for what is about to happen by telling him in simple language or showing him the Tuneville icon.
2. Give him a few minutes to process this information.
3. Allow a student to choose which song she would like to listen to. She can communicate her wishes by pointing or saying the first word or two of a song’s title or lyric.
4. Give a choice between two songs. This is a simple way of eliciting a preference and giving away some, but not very much control.Allow a student the option of earphones or, being covered by a blanket to block out other visual stimulation while he listens.
5. Allow a student to control the volume for a minute or two. 
6. Play only a few seconds of a song and then turn it off. Then, each time the song is played, extend the time of listening. Do not to give the student the job of turning on and off the music. The sign for finished, or the word “stop” can be taught to communicate his or her wishes but the right to turn on and off the music should not be extended.

THE JOY OF THE MUSIC AND BEHAVIORISM?

battles for control=
hidden hearts

Many who have spent time building, studying, or implementing autism interventions, recognize the behavioral roots of Precision Songs and Tuneville. Others are surprised to learn the majority of our lyrics come straight from ABA (applied behavior analysis) drill books. While we honor and greatly appreciate the principles and amazing outcomes of ABA, we have found ABA to have a few major practical drawbacks: ABA programs require immense dedication for new skill acquisition through drills and almost equal dedication to retain a skill through relentless review. Motivation is a recurrent problem, not to mention the financial burden and lack of trustworthy practitioners. Even more disheartening, we have personally seen consistent, successful behavioral programs degenerate into out of balance control games. Practitioners find out what is reinforcing and then dole it out in exchange for compliance. An intelligent student then learns to withhold his heart, not showing what truly motivates and excites him. This withholding blocks the path to discovering the joy of learning for its own sake, the optimal reinforcing experience. Precision Songs is a powerful path back to rediscovering  this joy by imbedding critical lessons in catchy tunes. Tuneville goes one step further by combining the joy of music with the fun of the ipad. Initial phases of learning are purely self-directed causing the user to forget, if he realizes in the first place, that underneath all the fun are the hard core principles of the most researched based learning intervention - ABA.

The Tuneville Protocol

Tuneville is a fun place for kids to visit, to the extent that learning seems a side benefit that the adults in their lives secretly celebrate. Yet for children with language disabilities, Tuneville is a such serious intervention that it merits a protocol:

1. Play only the first version of a song until a student is thoroughly familiar with all the lyrics. Then move on to the second version of the lesson. This way, the missing lyrics will  be an obvious omission and a student may feel immediately compelled to fill-in. If not, classmates, caregivers, siblings or teachers should model the missing lyrics. Keep in mind that fading these verbal prompts will be crucial for independence.
2. Once a student is regularly filling in missing lyrics with the music, move quickly to the third version of the song. If necessary, make an occasional return to the second track as a reward for listening to the third.
3. After a student is thoroughly familiar with the third version of the lesson, move on to the fourth.  Again, modeling fill-ins may be necessary initially. 

Wherever your student is on the protocol, continually expand the student's abilities through the following techniques:

• Apply the song’s content to everyday situations. Create situations if necessary and sing the song during that activity.
• Sing or chant lines of a song out of order and alternate between singing and speaking lyrics in an everyday voice. 
• If your student has provided fill-ins before, sung or spoken, expect a response. 
• Give plenty of time for processing and praise every step of success.

How the Brain Deals with Gaps in Music

Much about music remains shrouded in mystery, but light is being shed as brain scanning and other tools of measurement advance in their precision. A 2005 study out of Dartmouth College* used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the physiology of brain activity when blanks are left in familiar tunes. Muting short gaps of familiar music was sufficient to trigger auditory imagery showing that the phenomenon was automatic and irresistible. Pictures (c) and (d) below show that silent gaps embedded in familiar songs induce greater activation in auditory association areas than silent gaps embedded in unknown songs.

So, when children listen repeatedly to Tuneville track A, they become very familiar with how a song ought to be. When track B introduces gaps for students to take turns filling in the blanks, the brain literally “lights up.” The bottom right image is a picture of the obligatory, irresistible urge for completion as it shows up on a MRI.

*D.J. Kraemer, C.M. Neil, Kelley, W.M. and Green, A.G., “The Sound of Silence,” Nature, Vol. 434 (2005).